Auguries of Innocence
by yume girl 91
Summary: Others may want her for their own reasons, but Gin doesn't care. All he wants is her 'heart' and it's going to belong to him and him alone. GinRuki, UlquiRuki, hints of IchiRuki.
1. Prompt1: Wildflower

Prompt.1: Wildflower

_He_ presented it to her one fine day behind the barracks of Squad thirteen, a circlet of wild daisies, unique save only for their vibrant purple of the most violet hue. Uncomfortable with the most unwelcome gift, she took them from his long slender fingers, her skin and blood freezing at the soft comment he whispered into her ear.

"They'd sure look lovely crowning that little raven head of yours, Rukia-chan."

~~~*~~~

Length: 71 words.

A/N: Wow a new record! Ten minutes for a teeny drabble! Anyhow we all know I don't own Bleach :P. Please review? Note: the main title comes from my most favorite of poems by William Blake.


	2. Prompt2: Silhouette

She was uncomfortable changing before the thin paper screen. The summer heat almost unbearable in the clingy brocade kimono, society in the Kuchiki elders' presences deemed necessary. A simple yellow flowered Yukata lay draped across the stand, little felt slippers awaited her feet by the sliding door opening out onto the Take-Sunoko en.

Shrugging off the Nagajuban, her skin was exposed to the stilted air for a second, turning around to slide the woven cotton gown from the stand onto her body. A creak split the air, whirling to face the framed screen; her ears caught the faintest chuckle blown on the cool breeze that gusted through the slats between the paper and wood.

_It reminded her of somebody_…

Her skin crawled unpleasantly.

_But he wouldn't dare…would he_?

~~~*~~~

Ichimaru saw the delicate form of her silhouette tremble, his chuckle permeating the small room.

_He had seen her potential. Now all that was left to do was wait for her to blossom into the beautiful butterfly he knew her to be._

_Then he would make his move._

~~~*~~~

8/25/2009

AN: revised from Asagiri's instructions. Now the _Take-sunoko en_ I found on a certain dictionary website that listed it as a meronym for veranda. But whatever…


	3. Prompt3: Whisper

_Vile._

He could see it in her eyes when she looked at him.

_Depraved_.

What she truly thought of him.

_Sick._

He lightly touched his chest, behind her brother's back.

_I'm hurt, Rukia-chan_.

He watched her lovely violet orbs widen.

_Sweet fear. _

He had known she would look back at him.

~*~

"Please..." she refused to look at him now, knowing her facade of fearlessness in his presence would falter. "Captain Ichimaru, I have duties to attend to."

He heard the repellant quality in her quiet voice, his grin widening, "isn't greeting your superior officer count as one? Hm?" He delighted in the slight flush that crept up her cheeks.

"I--I suppose so." she looked away, her delicate lips trembling, "g-good afternoon, Captain." She quickly ducked her head and attempted to slip by him. His hand on her shoulder froze her in place. He sensed her shudder under his touch and leaned in slightly, his tone as sweet as honey, "now you have yourself a good afternoon as well, _Kuchiki-san_."

He released her, only slightly disappointed that she had learned not to look back.

He watched her until she disappeared down a turn in the corridor.

His fingers still tingled where they had touched her.

"Thanks for making **my** day, Rukia-chan." He whispered.

~Fin~

Note: three more left.

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	4. Prompt4: Tender

She dreams some nights, of long slender fingers, trailing over the line of her jaw, nails short, but the tips sharp tracing the line of her mouth. She recoils in sleep from the feel of snakes crawling over her body.

Awakening comes soon after.

~*~

But there are times when it goes deeper than that.

The bed sinks, a slight weight pushing down on her shoulders.

Something brushes her lips, the warmth of a moist tongue flicking-nibbling lightly for entry.

Rukia feels the same sensation of hands-things slithering over her Yukata-clad body, but no...this time...she relaxes, not fighting it.

Her lips part.

The pressure of his mouth on hers is so real that for a moment she swore she could smell the particular musky scent that is strictly male on his robes and skin.

She likes it. Her arms arch up around his neck, hands sliding through short, soft strands of silver hair...it's softer than she imagined. His touch isn't as repulsive as she always thought it would be _and now_...

When she awakes up alone, she realizes it's all just a dream-no-nightmare.

She won't tell anyone about these...for no matter how her flesh crawls, her lips grimacing at the reflection of herself in the bathroom mirror... she cannot forget her responses to the man she despised. Her half-want, half-repellant acceptance of his lips on hers, kissing her so tenderly.

And wishing...desiring it wasn't all just a dream.

~Fin~

Note: dreaming about Gin... ;) he's kind of hot in a creepy way, don't you think?

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	5. Prompt5: Someone special

Her brother was always with her. She wasn't so alone that way, hiding in his protective shadow, speaking little to the man who always seemed a step ahead. Behind every door, around every other corridor. Did no one question why he always turned up when she and her brother were together?

How he instinctively sensed her approach and would choose then to open that closed door, long slender fingers appearing around the edge or happen to walk up that particular stretch in Seireitei?

No matter where she went, he always found her.

It was better when Nii-sama was there.

The Captains would make small-talk. Exchange pleasantries and when Ichimaru couldn't extend their chance encounter any longer than politeness dictated he would turn his pale pointed face down to her, smiling that same happy smile.

It was like a mask.

He would ask how she was, as if he needed more verification than her presence to ascertain the state of her health.

_Fine_, she would say, looking anywhere else but at him.

Later her brother might correct her on how she addressed her superiors, but it-anything was worth taking instead of looking up into the stretched-thin lips of the man who frightened her so.

Ichimaru was going to let them pass.

Rukia felt safe, leaving him behind, knowing that as they were going around the next corner he wouldn't be there as he was going the opposite way, a rare mission to the living world occupying his time for the rest of the day.

She was free. Or so she believed. That is until his soft, caressing voice called back to _her_ adopting a queer, curious tone.

"Rukia-chan...is there by any chance someone you hold special in your heart?"

Even Byakuya seemed to find this strange, but continued on, leaving her to stare at his back. Behind herself, the light _tmp_ of steps meant Ichimaru was approaching. She was no longer safe.

"You didn't answer me, Rukia-chan. Is there?" he teased.

Her legs wanted to carry her far from this man but her mind stubbornly refused to show intimidation_. Gin Ichimaru would not get the best of her!_ Steeling herself by this resolve, Rukia half-turned, glancing up into his face. _He was closer than she had thought_.

"No," she kept her voice steady, "there isn't." Vaguely in the back of her mind she wondered if that damnable grin would've fallen/faltered if she had answered anything but what she had.

His hand reached for her shoulder. By instinct Rukia twisted away. His smile widened, "then that means I still have a chance."

~Fin~

Note: thanks to everyone who reviewed last time. :)

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	6. Prompt6: Jealousy

_A chance. _That's all he wanted.

But was that too much to ask for? He knew Byakuya wasn't a fool. The moment his attentions went from friendly civility to interested suitor, then the revered Captain Kuchiki would step in and ensure that his sister received nothing from that quarter.

Byakuya would do everything in his power to keep _his_ little Rukia-chan away.

So, how to go about it?

Whether from true familial feeling or something _else_, Gin knew he would never see her again. Luckily little Rukia-chan wasn't bright enough to tell Byakuya what he had said. She wasn't close to anyone in the Thirteen Court Guard Squads so much that he knew except...

Lieutenant Kaien Shiba of the Thirteenth Division.

Gin had heard of their closeness and even the Noble's training of her when off duty. A man like that, Byakuya could respect, maybe even consent to give up his little sister. Gin was bothered for a time of that possibility until he learned Kaien was married.

Loveless the couple were, but respected one another enough so that Gin wasn't worried for his Rukia-chan being in Shiba's company.

Wary yes.

Jealous no.

Long before he had learned not to express such sentiments, to hide behind the mask as it were. _One simply couldn't tell if under that happy smile_...

"I want him dead."

Aizen's look was faintly knowing, a smirk playing on his mouth. "Pray who, Gin?"

Of course he knew. One thing about the mild man whom no one thought much of and certainly didn't consider even remotely dangerous, was his way of discerning things.

"Kaien Shiba." Gin said, he felt his smile slipping as Aizen's grew. "Use Metastacia. I want him to suffer."

..._a raging beast lurked_.

~Fin~

AN: thanks to everyone who reviewed last time :)

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	7. Prompt7: Comfort

Her grief was something lovely. Pale pinched face, large violet eyes red from crying when she thought no one was looking only enhanced her beauty.

Gin decided he liked it best when she was sad, he liked to hear her quiet sobs.

Of course the death of a Lieutenant, well liked by everyone -save himself, made everyone grieve. Gin had to pretend he was sorry to hear of Shiba's death by a messenger stopping by his office.

It was slightly difficult _however_ to affect the right expression of sorrow when inside he was leaping for joy.

One more obstacle to Rukia-chan had been removed.

Eventually Gin was sure the disturbing feelings he had seen in her toward the married Lieutenant, would fade. After all wasn't he himself a much _superior _man than the deceased?

~*~

Although...it did bother him.

Just the littlest bit when he came upon her after the Company funeral; Shiba's body now resided in Hueco Mundo, not with his family. But they didn't need to know that.

_And though some may deny it, he _**was**_ capable of giving comfort_.

"Rukia-chan..." he bent low, his hand falling upon her shoulder before she'd been able to turn. She now gazed up at him, not startled, hardly frightened at that moment which surprised but wasn't displeasing to him. "Don't be so sad! Just think that Shiba-san and his wife are together now! You wouldn't have wanted them to stay separated even if it meant he had lived, now would you?"

Her eyes lowered, droplets clumping the thick lashes together, her voice quiet, "n-no, Captain Ichimaru."

He tapped her chin lightly, "do you think Lieutenant Shiba would want you to be crying your little eyes out? Or would he tell you to stand straight and give the world that pretty smile of yours, Rukia-chan?"

She pouted at _pretty_ but smiled watery all the same.

Gin left soon after; a strange, light feeling in his chest. _Could this be-?_

~Fin~

AN: Thanks for reading :)

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	8. Prompt8: Punishment

She took it stoically, the reading of her sentence and reason for imprisonment.

He knew she had been found and in the company of a human boy...one that for a moment he had thought was the long dead Kaien Shiba.

Reason however assured him otherwise. Shiba's spirit form had been consumed by Metastacia whose rotting corpse was then consumed...by another. So, there was no possibility, physical or spiritual that the boy could be Shiba reincarnated.

Gin was relieved. Only...the thought bothered him upon later circumspection.

_Was little Rukia-chan's face so vacant because of this boy?_

Aizen had arranged for Byakuya Kuchiki and her old friend to retrieve her, though neither knew they had been used in such a way.

It was said also that Byakuya had killed the boy-Gin hoped the former; or at least wounded him so badly that he lost all the powers he'd stolen from Rukia.

_Was she sad...because she thought this Ichigo Kurosaki was dead? _

He didn't like this theory at all.

_Since that would mean that she had fostered feelings, that she cared for someone other than him...that she_** loved **_someone_.

~*~

When Gin heard of this boy--this Ichigo Kurosaki defying everything and everyone to come save her and that he was at the gates to the Seireitei...

~*~

AN: thanks for reading :)

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	9. Prompt9: Reprimand

The words were meaningless; the tone clear. He was being reprimanded for taking action ahead of receiving orders. It was all the same mindlessness he had come to expect from a meeting of the Captains.

Gin could not wait until Aizen disposed of them and their foolish ways.

Particularly Rukia-chan's brother.

It seemed not even the great Byakuya Kuchiki whose pride and principles went against everything the Ryoka stood for and what they were trying to accomplish; this too, Gin knew; could not pardon the thoughtless course his fellow Captain had taken by engaging the Ryoka at the gates to the Seireitei.

_Foolish man. Likening him to unrefined Kenpachi Zaraki simply because of that other day after Rukia-chan had been retrieved_...

Gin dismissed those thoughts. It had merely been a taunt. An affront to the man's pride for previous offense. Let Byakuya think what he wanted. Gin was much happier reflecting on the wound he had dealt the Ryoka boy, pity it hadn't been deeper for then Ichigo Kurosaki might really have died.

~Finis~

Note: the incident with Byakuya of course was the one where Kenpachi had offered to dispatch Rukia instead of waiting for the sentencing/execution. I can't quite remember right now ^^; but I do recall Gin was there. Anyway, thanks for reading :)

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	10. Prompt10: Watch over you

It was there in the back of her mind. No matter how she tried to ignore it, pretend it was nothing but the sense of isolation getting to her, she turned. Sharply. Quickly. Trying to catch whoever was there.

A moment later she realized how ridiculous it was. Of course no one was there! she had been denied visitors and anyway..._who would come and see her even if that order wasn't in place? _

Rukia sighed, irritated with herself and her overactive imagination playing tricks on her. Once again she resumed lying down, her knees drawn up, her arms folded over her chest, hands clasped together.

Just yesterday she had sensed Ichigo's reiatsu. Her heart had leapt knowing he had lived and yet saddened at the same time for his presence. _Why had he come?! Couldn't he see it was foolhardy and he was just wasting his life?! Didn't he know she didn't want to be saved!_

Sometimes his sheer stupidity aggravated her, but at the moment, she simply smiled a sad, soft smile up at the high ceiling of the Repentance cell. _It was nice...to know someone cared even just a little for her_.

~*~

Gin saw her turn. Of course behind the door, he simply stepped back until her suspicious, searching gaze had returned to the ceiling of her quarters. He heard her sigh deeply, knowing she was blaming her mind for thinking someone was there. _Watching_.

Oh, she had been denied visitors and the guards had been somewhat adamant on this order; _but it wasn't entirely impossible not to be allowed in_. He always found a loophole, a slip of a few words from a clever tongue and he was standing outside her cell door all alone. The head guard had even been nice enough to call his men from the area, leaving the prisoner and the Captain by themselves as requested.

Gin smiled, pressing the tips of his fingers against the impenetrable door, drumming them lightly to let Rukia know she wasn't as alone as she thought. _He usually got...what he wanted_.

~Finis~

Note: Gin is back to being creepy. ;) When is he not? Thanks for reading :)

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	11. Prompt11: Orders

Aizen had warned him. No, warn is too harsh a word. In their many conversations together before and after Fifth's Captain was pronounced dead; Gin couldn't recall any instance of Aizen ever issuing an order to him.

Beyond closed doors, yes.

During his tenure as Lieutenant, it was expected.

But, beyond closed doors, it was a different matter. Gin didn't mind serving the man whom he had never ceased to think of as his Captain it was as simple as that.

Yet what was not so simple nor easy to allay was the present course with Rukia-chan.

_Do not interfere_.

Aizen's words replayed in Gin's mind, on his lips was a quiet, jaunty tune.

On his face his smile.

In his heart...

Well, that was another matter.

Simply put, Gin found himself on the bridge where he knew he would meet up with the retinue that was to take the condemned one to Sokyoku hill. Mild pomp was exercised for this adopted child of a Noble clan.

Although Gin discovered less guards than he had previously expected.

All well. More the better for him. He lightly touched Shinso's hilt.

The first of the guards started back.

"Captain Ichi-"

Gin didn't give him time to finish the greeting.

Retracting his spear, the man melted into a lifeless heap.

_There was a hole where his heart should've been_. Gin tilted his head to the side; Rukia was frozen, unable to move, unable to speak as the rest of her handlers joined the first.

Idly, he watched a drop of blood roll down her cheek. The chains extending from the collar about her pretty little neck, hung slack. He saw the fear in her eyes as her sight was filled with him. Gin laid his hand upon her cheek, his thumb rubbing and smearing the red splotch into a trail.

Her whitened lips trembled.

_She was afraid, poor dear_. Gin clucked his tongue in disapproval. "Now, Rukia-chan, what have I taught you about politeness to Superiors?"

Bending low so that they were eye-level, her little chin cupped in his hand so she couldn't turn away. Not that she would. He had her in his grasp now and it was impossible for her to break away. Gin, grinned with this thought in mind. Even feeling so bold as to lean in and brush a chaste kiss along the rise of her high cheekbone.

Whispering quietly in her ear, "aren't you going to thank me for saving you?"

~Finis~

Note: alternate! :) I've thought about it and decided this scenario would make for an interesting line instead of them parting at Sokyoku hill. :) Thanks for reading!

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	12. Prompt12: Change of plans

"Change of plans." Gin said to Tosen. The blind man had sensed him approaching and not just himself but with another.

"Rukia Kuchiki?!" Tosen hissed, his expression was a mixture of fury and offense.

They both knew Aizen's orders did not include the limp form of the prisoner over his shoulder.

"Yeah..thought it'd be easier you know to extract the Hogyoku from her if she was in our hands." _Mine_, he thought, smiling but didn't add. Once Aizen had what he wanted, then little Rukia-chan could be turned over to his most loyal subordinate.

Then again, if Ichigo Kurosaki, whom Gin could sense racing to Sokyoku hill to stop the execution that was never going to happen...actually lived past the other Captains.

Rukia-chan might be sufficient bait to lure the Ryoka; if Aizen still professed an interest in the boy's powers. As it was, Gin really couldn't see the importance attached to the brash orange-haired teen. Hopefully Byakuya would not disappoint and get rid of the boy once and for all.

~*~

She felt weightless. _Oh, that's right. She was supposed to be executed today. They had come already and_--Rukia's brow furrowed. _Ichimaru had come upon them_.

The supposedly dead Captain Sosuke Aizen's voice rolled over her.

"...And I will stand atop the heavens. Goodbye Soulreapers, goodbye Ryoka boy...it was interesting while it lasted."

Her eyes flew open_. Ichigo! _

They were high above Sokyoku hill, ascending in three separate columns of yellow light. Someone had their hand threaded through her obi, her arms and legs hung down limply.

The stricken faces of the Court Guard Squads looked on in horror. She sought Ichigo's and found him beside her brother. "Let go of her, you bastard!!!"

Ichimaru's chuckle came from above her.

With a plummeting sensation in her stomach, Rukia half turned, her head tilting back to see the grinning fox-like face of the man of her nightmares, staring down at her.

"I wouldn't dream of letting go of you for the entire world. 'Cause you've always been my dream, Rukia-chan..."

She screamed.

~To be continued~

AN: thanks for reading :)

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	13. Prompt13: Fear

_She must be tired_...Gin petted her dark head, the strands sliding through his long thing fingers. Rukia mumbled something and shifted away from his touch. Gin's smile increased, his hand falling to her thin shoulder instead.

"Rukia-chan..." he kept his voice low, whispery.

A tremor passed through her small body. Gin cocked his head to the side, admiring the _cute_ picture she made lying curled up on his Captains haori like that.

"I pity Rukia Kuchiki." Tosen's voice came, the now ex Ninth Division Captain hesitated on passing through the door. "The better fate awaited her at the end of Sokyoku hill as punishment for her crime."

Gin waited until Tosen had left, leaving he and Rukia-chan truly alone. _What was the man saying? That he should've abandoned her to the __scaffold __as it were? Never!_ _Sometimes_, he leaned down, his sharp nails scraping her fine little cheek until dull scarlet beads rose to the surface and he happily lapped them up with neat flicks of his tongue. _Gin just didn't get Tosen's perverted sense of justice!_

"Unh..Ichigo is it--" Rukia's voice held a heaviness to it and Gin knew he had Szayel to thank for the aesthetic that had taken her under while the precious Hogyoku had been recovered from her konpaku. Even though, he was less pleased to hear _that boy's_ name fall from her rosy lips.

_Patience. Patience_...Gin taxed himself, then grinned as her little head turned, her eyes widening with the same delicious fear that had blossomed over her face on Sokyoku hill. "Good morning, Rukia-chan." Gin purred, stroking the cut he had made marring her flawless skin. The cheek beneath his touch, trembled, her violet-blue eyes darting about like a caged animal's. Searching for a way out.

"There's none." Gin said, still softly, quietly, as if by raising his voice he would somehow frighten her more than he had. The thought alone made heat rise in his lower regions, an uncontrollable shiver going down his spine. "No escape from me, my little Rukia-chan."

She begun to shrink away, the trembling unceasing from her lips and the desire rising in his body.

He was about to join in her little evasion game when the door opened. _Unfortunately_. The Cuatro Espada's voice cut through the moment like a knife. "Lord Aizen wants to speak with you."

With some regret, Gin glimpsed the fear drain from the tense set of Rukia's shoulders. Her glance even went to the apathetic gaze of the Arrancar waiting at the door. Gin was a little put-out, not seeing her eyes fill with fear right away.

_It seemed he was the only one she truly feared._

_Ah well_. Gin was grinning again as he rose.

_There was something special in that_.

As Gin went out, he noticed that Ulquiorra had never taken his eyes off of Rukia, not once. Gin then made a mental note to tell Aizen it was hands-off since she was _his_.

_Being the only man to cause fear in her._

~To be continued~

AN: on my profile is a link to a small pic I made of Gin and Rukia. ;) check it out. Okay, okay -.- whenever Ulquiorra and Rukia have a scene together, I can't resist adding a hint of tension...I mean he is pretty non-threatening compared to Gin. ;p

Thanks for reading and to everyone who reviewed last time. ^^

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	14. Prompt14: Thank you

"What do you think of little Rukia-chan?" Gin posed the question innocuously. Perhaps there was something in his tone, or Ulquiorra was more perceptive than Gin realized. Surely it couldn't have been his facial expression showing displeasure, not when his smile flashed the black-haired Espada's way.

"There is nothing to think of Kuchiki Rukia." Ulquiorra said. _More guarded than usual_, Gin thought. "Come, come now. Can't you be slightly more specific than your usual brusqueness with me?!" Gin whined, "it makes me feel sometimes as if you don't like me."

Ulquiorra said nothing more for a time, his green-eyed gaze focused straight ahead, neither wandering nor looking to the man keeping pace. _Perfect, like a statue, only moving. No wonder he was one of Aizen's favorites_. In time the Espada briefly closed his eyes, pausing with exactness outside of the double doors that lead to Aizen's rooms.

Gin had hardly noticed just how far they had come until they had stopped,; so intent was he on the Espada's facial expressions. Unfortunately Ulquiorra was as blank as the doors they stood before. "It is not my place to remark or take notice on something that is deemed to be another's."

"Ah." Gin wasn't convinced. He was positive the stoic Arrancar was hiding something but gleefully pretended not to let it bother him. _He would step back and observe them, maybe even give Ulquiorra a little encouragement only to assert his claim over Rukia once and for all!_ His grin widened at these thoughts and not even Aizen's slight warning not to spoil their guest so much could not take away Gin's smile.

_What a fun little game it would be_...

_Watching the stoic, emotionless Espada learn to care for something and then see it be taken away and not be able to do a thing about it! _

"That smile..Gin. Are you planning something?" Aizen's tone was faintly humored, like a father indulging a child's playtime. Gin half-turned to smile over his shoulder to his superior, "why no, Lord Aizen. I was just thinking of fun things to do with my little Rukia-chan." Gin's eyes opened a little wider, the red gleam shone through, "but don't worry, I'll make sure she's _not_ permanently _damaged_."

~*~

The door opened quietly.

Rukia spun from corner to corner of the medium-sized white walled room searching for a way out. _No windows. No grates_. Her mind ran in frenzied circles desperate for escape.

"Woman."

A scream nearly tore from her mouth. Her heart drummed in her ears even as distantly she registered that the voice was not of the man she feared. "You.." the black-haired Arrancar whom had come before, now stood in the doorway, simply watching her with inscrutable eyes.

"W-where am I?" Rukia hated sounding so unsure and so..so frightened. Her voice was merely a quiet squeak unlike her usual sure tones. "In Las Noches." The Arrancar answered shortly then considered his sentence incomplete, "in Hueco Mundo."

Rukia let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. _Hueco Mundo...the world of the Hollows_. _Ichigo's face flashed through her mind_. A choking feeling of relief and pain rippled through her.

It must've shown on her face for the Arrancar made a motion as if to step closer then decided against it. "I-I'm alright." she said, as if to answer the unspoken question. _He didn't seem hostile_, she noticed, _if not slightly aloof_. She thought it best to try and pump him for info on her surroundings while they were alone.

"How long..have I been here?" That was a safe one.

"Two days." he replied without a change in expression.

Rukia nodded though she was rather disturbed by the fact that she had no clear recollection on what had happened during that time. "Who are you?"

"Ulquiorra Schiffer."

_Strange name_, she thought, but laid her hand to her chest, "Rukia Kuchiki."

"I know." The slightest flicker of something, emotion perhaps? Passed over his face, "we all know it."

"Who's _we_?" Rukia baited.

"The others and I. We were told of your coming by Lord Aizen." The barest hint of reverence was in his tone when he spoke of the man. Rukia noted it and thought of the man she had vaguely known to be Captain Sosuke Aizen of Fifth Division. Had he faked his death then? She recalled being in the Senzaikyu and hearing of his murder from the guards outside. But it had seemed as though the event of the Ryoka-Ichigo and a few others, breaking into Soul Society to save her had taken more precedence in the minds of the Soulreapers.

Rukia guessed there was a connection. _But_--

"Woman," Ulquiorra spoke to remind her of his presence.

She looked at him straight in the eye, "not 'woman', please. _Rukia_."

The Arrancar's expression was unreadable for a time then the slenderest of dips of his raven head made his concession known, "Rukia, then. I will escort you to where Gin Ichimaru awaits."

Her blood ran cold but she still managed a tiny smile as she passed him to go out into the hallway. _Thank you_.

~To be continued~  
AN: little hint of UxR. :) to answer Rukiharem's question there could be more moments like that upcoming. :) thanks for reading.

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	15. Prompt15: Night

Gin watched through slitted half moon eyes, Ulquiorra and Rukia's approach.

Side by side they walked. Not touching or speaking to one another, even if both were intensely aware of the other's presence. _Oh, yes_.. Gin could see it. In the way the stoic Espada shifted his gaze to her and discovered her looking back.

No change in expression.

No emotion.

No words.

Gin unconsciously tightened his palm around the balcony railing. "Rukia-chan." To get their attention he told himself. He was rewarded by her slight start, the jolt rippling through her small body clad still in the unadorned white robe. The look of naked trepidation that crossed her face was even more delicious then any pleasure her body could give him.

_She didn't want to leave the side of the Arrancar for him_.

Ulquiorra was motionless, only a feet away but his pale face was cast in shadow. So, Gin, yearn as he might to glimpse the Espada's expression-if he had any that is, couldn't. He relished however, still the moment when he called her to his side. "Come, come!"

She had no choice then but to close the remaining steps between them and near the balcony railing. Gin smiled down at her, deliberately ignoring the Arrancar's stare. "I just wanted to show you the beautiful night." Gin laid his arm about her small shoulders, gently guiding her to face the moonlit vista.

Her intake of breath made his smile grow.

The moon was large over the shadowed sands, the light though frail diffused a kind of ethereal glow over the plains and hillocks of the desolate world.

_A stark beauty_, he thought, gazing down at her pale, pinched face, the haggard look from her captivity hadn't been lost and yet it suited her large, haunted eyes. She was like the desert of Hueco Mundo. _Isolated. Forgotten_. _A lonely flower that had barely begun to bloom to show its beauty to the world_-- his eyes opened the slightest fraction.

His grin widened, _to me_..

~*~

Ulquiorra did not move. _He hadn't been ordered to leave nor had been given a dismissal_. Analytically his thought process approved of this as being the reason he didn't simply walk away. A dismissal was important for however, he may not favor Gin Ichimaru's company, he did not wish to offend Lord Aizen's right-hand man. As little as Gin Ichimaru did to further their eventual aims, Ulquiorra could not say. The man had been responsible for bringing Rukia Kuchiki to Hueco Mundo, the item of great importance to Lord Aizen hidden within her being.

Ulquiorra therefore could not so lightly think upon the petite woman standing beside Ichimaru, oblivious to the Soulreaper's malevolent smile and dismiss her as trash like the rest.

His mind at first refuted his reasoning. Though she was Ichimaru's 'guest' that did not mean he was to treat her with deference. Obeying her wish and calling her _Rukia_ and not _woman_, was one instance of that. He then argued mildly that was there was _no_ reason not to call her by her name. He refused to admit it pleased him to say her name because that was illogical in itself.

Things did not give pleasure to a meaningless being such as him.

At least they shouldn't.

Contradictory though it was, one half was satisfied with this vague explanation for his actions. Or lack thereof. He stayed watching her while Gin Ichimaru kept an arm around her body.

And even when Ichimaru nuzzled her and she pushed him away, starting back a few steps.

Ulquiorra did nothing.

"Take me to my room!" she snapped.

And he did just that, ignoring the maddened laughter behind their backs from Gin Ichimaru.

~*~

The Arrancar's silence was much preferable to Ichimaru's lewd insinuations.

Rukia told herself over and over this was just another game of his.

_But_...she folded arm about her middle, her gaze cast down. She couldn't forget the raw emotion raging behind his mild, quiet tone nor the look in his slit red eyes.

_"Would you rather it be him?" _

_Ridiculous!_ her mind snapped to the image of Gin in her mind. _Ulquiorra was an Arrancar!_ Covertly she glanced to the side, glimpsing his profile. His face as before betrayed nothing of what he was thinking but she wasn't stupid enough to believe his mind was empty. He had seemed intelligent enough during their previous conversation. She couldn't forget as well that he had called her by name when she'd asked.

No matter how personal that made their association seem, it was better than _woman_. 

Her mind at ease now, satisfied with the answer she had come up with, allowed her to speak with an easy conscience before closing the door.

"Goodnight, Ulquiorra."

He hadn't said anything reply, but then again she hadn't expected him to.

~To be continued~

AN: thanks for reading :)

No flames-haters-stupid comments! I mean it!

Reviews appreciated :)


	16. Prompt16: Presents

Gin studied the drawing on the floor beside Rukia. He turned his head this way then that way in an attempt to figure out what it was. Gin didn't claim to be an art connoisseur, although he believed he had an eye for beauty. _He still couldn't tell what it was_.

Oh, well.

Maybe when she awoke for breakfast, he would simply ask the _artiste_.

Waving a dismissive hand to the silent Arrancar in the doorway; he waited until the door had closed quietly and they were quite alone. Gin preferred things this way.

"Rukia-chan...Oh, little Rukia-chan!" Gin whispered in her ear, his breath tickling the slightly mussy strands. She just mumbled a little then buried her head deeper into the pillow that was his old captains haori. _He really did need to order some pillows...maybe some purple silk ones_...

After all nothing was too much for his Rukia-chan.

Not the pads of sketching paper, oil-based crayons and pastel color pencils or even the easel in the corner. He had entreated the Arrancar servants to be extremely careful in setting it up during the night. But, the item Gin was most proud of was the limited edition stuffed Chappy the bunny. He knew she had a fondness for the items featuring the white rabbit and had been after that one specifically_. Unfortunately at the time she hadn't_...

"..Mm..oh!" Her large violet-blue eyes fluttered open and as planned the first thing she saw was the plush toy. Gin sat back as she snatched it up and held it to her chest possessively only then her gaze traveled to his smiling face. "I heard you liked Chappy," he offered. Rukia's eyes narrowed, but she made no move to give up the stuffed rabbit. "You can keep it if you want."

Her lips pouted, but two grudging words slipped out, "thank you."

"I hope you like everything else." Gin, though he tried not to let it show he was immensely pleased with her gratitude. Her eyes did widen slightly when she glimpsed the art easel and her head jerked once to indicate it was fine. "I had breakfast prepared. But, please pardon me, as much as I would enjoy eating with you, I mustn't. I'm a busy man, you know?" Gin chuckled a little as he rose, passing by the cart and the dome-covered tray on top.

He almost thought she wasn't going to speak. Being as stubborn as she was, accepting his thoughtfulness to her; Gin was sure she wasn't going to eat for fear of the dish being poisoned.

How pleasantly wrong he was.

"...what do you want from me?"

Gin stopped, his back to her. "Nothing.. 'cept of course for you love me."

~To be continued~

AN: sorry for it being so short. ^^; thanks for reading! Ulqui will probably show up again next chapter.

No flames-haters-stupid comments!

Reviews appreciated ^^


	17. Game

What Gin of course had to do, that was oh-so important and took him away from his Rukia-chan's delightful presence, was to be present at Aizen's meeting.

Beside Tosen, whom despite their status as traitors the same, showed his heavy disapproval of Rukia being brought with them in the stern set of his expression and his unalterably stiff posture.

_Honestly_..Gin thought. _The man was insufferable! Not only did he think that Rukia should've been punished, but that she didn't deserve to be spoiled!_ Gin knew he had promised Aizen not to overly indulge her, but he himself didn't see anything wrong with procuring items she found enjoyable.

Surprisingly, even though he hadn't thought before he could take pleasure in anything _but his games_; there was something pleasant in being able to give her things and watch her delight, even if he had to watch very closely for it.

Entertained by these thoughts and more on what else he could lay his hands on for her; Gin was almost insensible to the glance of green eyes from Aizen's right side. That is, until he felt the slightest chill and tilted his head up to catch who else but the Cuatro Espada looking his way.

It was no more than a glance.

A fleeting second of their eyes meeting.

Aizen talked on about Soul Society and how they would crush his old home, eventually taking their places as the rightful rulers of the worlds.

Gin didn't think many were paying attention, indeed even the most loyal of all, Ulquiorra.

A second passed.

Ulquiorra's expression was as unreadable as ever. _Or was it..?_

Gin sensed the slightest tightening of the thin black slash across the pale countenance. _A hint of displeasure? _ _Oh, yes_...a slow grin stretched his lips thin. Gin knew it for what it was. Just the slightest crack in the Espada's impenetrable armor.

_Ulquiorra Schiffer was showing emotion_.

Gin reveled in his faint triumph as the meeting came to an end.

His little game had suddenly become all that more interesting.

*~*) From G to U

He was thinking of her.

Illogical though it was that any thought of the woman in Ichimaru's care should disturb his thought process, was beyond forgivable. Ulquiorra could not even fathom why in his mind's eye he saw the woman's face. _Her trembling shoulders. Her large violet-blue eyes meeting his for a second as they walked side by side_...

Such thoughts.

His eyes lifted from the expanse of the table, looking behind his Lord.

To the man whom stood so still and strangely enough lacking the mad grin he always wore.

Ulquiorra could see Ichimaru was in grave thought. _Perhaps..of the woman?_ Logically he knew it likely, however did not find the accompanying images pleasant that inevitably followed that thread of thought. No. Ichimaru was thinking up brilliant strategies to advance their Lord's plan.

Satisfied with that explanation, Ulquiorra wasn't disconcerted in the least to find Ichimaru had glanced up.

For a split second their eyes met.

Ichimaru smiled.

The woman's face flashed through his mind.

_Her fear_.

Unconscious of the gesture, his mouth tightened.

And Ichimaru looked away, pleased.

(*~*) From U to R

_Love..him? _ Rukia felt the floor tilt beneath her gaze. Feeling physically ill, she clasped the Chappy plushie closer, quite forgetting it had been him whom had brought it.

_Love him! That..that was impossible! How could he ever think to suppose_-

Rukia wanted to scream.

_Why even try to fathom the depths of his insanity? Gin Ichimaru was a madman_...

She refused to think of her old dreams and his few times of simple kindness.

There was nothing left, but for her to escape.

~To be continued~

AN: thanks for reading ^^

No flames-haters-stupid comments!

Reviews appreciated! ^^


	18. Friend

Rukia gave up. There was nothing of any use to her in the room. Frowning, she stalked over to the tray of untouched food, replacing the silver dome to find cooled shiratama and crisp cucumber sliced in ornate little shapes surrounding the dumplings. _He must've_...

She tried to shake off the feeling that stirred inside at the sight of her favorite food obviously so carefully prepared for her enjoyment. _Gin Ichimaru always had a secret agenda_. She couldn't forget that in light of the painstaking lengths he had gone to ensure her contentment, he was also the one to steal her away from her punishment and lock her up in Las Noches. Rukia's feelings of loathing soon overcame her appreciation. What did he think she was? Some kind of pet? One to throw toys and food at and in return-

_"Nothing.. 'cept of course for you love me."_

Absurd! Rukia stuffed a piece of cucumber in her mouth, chewing angrily. He was the last man she could ever have any sort of feelings for! Even...she faltered with the chopsticks halfway lifted toward her lips. The Arrancar...her thoughts turned toward Ulquiorra of their own accord. That would be the day she would fall in love with him first before she could ever have any sentiment of so-called love for Gin Ichimaru!

(*~*)

This was most irregular. The woman did not start upon his arrival. Ulquiorra got the distinct impression she had been waiting for him. But, that was absurd. It could've been anyone that had been sent by Ichimaru to ascertain whether or not she had consumed the food served. Ulquiorra was indeed surprised, yet somewhat more respectful as she had proved once again she was not imprudent. She had cleaned the plate satisfactorily, in a manner which made him sure that she hadn't disposed of it elsewhere.

She was now sitting on the floor atop a cushion, balancing an open sketchpad, pencil poised between her fingers. "How was your day?" she didn't look up. Ulquiorra heard the slight scratch of the lead tip running over the pad she kept tilted toward her.

"It is none of your concern."

"No, it isn't. So, how was it?"

"I believe I just said it was none of your concern."

"That you did." Rukia agreed sagely, readjusting the paper to apply a few more pen strokes. A slight curiosity began to gnaw at his psyche. _What was it she was drawing?_ It was an inconsequential thing, to be interested in anything the woman made. Despite his insistence of it being so, Ulquiorra took a step closer. Not much but almost enough to glimpse...

Rukia sensed the distance lessen between them. She suddenly flipped the book around, displaying a cream-colored sheet of heavy paper. In the center was a chubby _bear_-? With a strange cone curling out from the left side of his head.

He stared at it while she stared up at him obviously waiting for some acknowledgement of her skills.

"What is it supposed to represent?" he had no idea what it was.

He saw her eyebrows meet then shoot up high on her forehead, her mouth opening and closing several times. "You! You idiot!"

Ulquiorra saw no resemblance between himself and the figure she had drawn. It was only too clear that the woman had no talent and that she assumed she did. Which lead him to make only one conclusion. It was far better to dissuade her of this than...

He caught sight of another. One with little slits for eyes and a large happy grin. _Gin Ichimaru_. For some indefinable reason, he felt something clench tightly inside. Anger? Its cause was unknown at that moment, however Ulquiorra strove to keep his expression neutral. Disinterested. "You asked how my day went." He stepped away from her, sliding one hand from his pocket to grasp the handle of the cart. "Though it is none of your concern. We are not friends-"

"-what if I want us to be?" she interjected forgetting the drawings and getting to her feet, arms crossed over her narrow chest.

"We cannot be-"

"Who says?" her voice began to rise dangerously and her eyes flashed with the depth of the irritation she felt. _Almost _ fascinated by the play of emotion, he chose his response carefully. "Ichimaru."

At once Rukia's expression changed.

Fury. Despise. And many other emotions he decided to analyze in private later on. However, not once could he associate any of her emotions as connoting deep sentiment on her part for Ichimaru. _Interesting_.

"Well, I don't care!"

From the corner of his eye, he perceived her determination.

"He doesn't tell me what I can and can't do! I don't care what he says or thinks! I want to be your friend!" she was rather..._persuasive_; Ulquiorra decided. Foolishly perhaps. Yet nonetheless so. She took his hand from the cart, pressing it between her own. Ulquiorra felt the warmth of her skin. Felt the insuppressible consequence of such closeness.

He...liked it.

For the first time since becoming a Hollow, Ulquiorra Schiffer...

Liked something.

Felt an inclination to be in someone's presence out of his own **need**.

And that alone frightened him more than anything.

(*~*)

Gin watched Rukia take the Espada's hand. He glimpsed the flicker in the emotionless green eyes, but it wasn't of displeasure_. Rather_...he was unaware of his reiatsu rising until the screen began to flicker where it was frozen on their faces. Rukia's of fierce acceptance and Ulquiorra's caught in the few moments when he had begun to change. To feel something.

Gin taxed himself on his temper.

His smile had slipped and with it his mask. It was only a good thing that there hadn't been anyone around to glimpse it. Gin knew his face had been most unbecoming with the livid rage gleaming in his eyes and the downward curve of his narrow mouth.

Better to smile...

..lest Ulquiorra suspect Gin of knowing.

~To be continued~

AN: thanks for reading! ^^

No flames-haters-stupid comments!

Reviews appreciated! ^^


	19. Tears

Walking through the halls of Las Noches to his quarters, Ulquiorra thought of what Rukia had said.

_"He doesn't tell me what I can and can't do! I don't care what he says or thinks! I want to be your friend!" _

_It was a ridiculous wish,_ he maintained. Glad of the silence that lay heavy within this level of Las Noches; Ulquiorra was undisturbed with his thoughts. Very few Arrancar wandered into the Fourth Espada's palace. It was inconceivable that they should, they had nothing in common other than their loyalty to Aizen and even that was questionable in the case of the Sexta who seemed to hold their leader in absolute contempt. Ulquiorra despised those who rebelled against authority.

A notion that the woman-Rukia, seemed to affront with her very presence.

Oh, she had never said anything against Lord Aizen, only would get a strange look about her face as if she was surprised by something. No, it was the very wall between them that she was determined to break down.

.._your friend_. The skin of his palm tingled, his fingers folded tighter, blunt nails digging into the hard flesh. It was the hand she had touched, clutched between her own that were much smaller. He doubted she had ever held Ichimaru's hand the same way. Somehow that assumption soothed his mind; Rukia did not have feelings for Ichimaru.

(*~*)

Some part of Rukia knew she wasn't a good artist. Never would be. She wanted to commit his likeness to paper, an image to take with her. _When she escaped_. In her mind's eye she could see every detail of his face, the shade of his eyes and tear tracks that seemed like he was crying.

_Crying..? For what? _

Rukia's green pencil stopped coloring in the orb.

_Hollows were once humans too. Did that mean Ulquiorra had lost someone he never stopped crying for? _

She stared around at her various, sometimes half-unfinished attempts. They surrounded her. A splash of black here for his hair, a soft ivory for the horn that curled up from his broken mask. The green of an eye... Rukia laid aside her pencil set and lifted up the art pad in both hands. Holding it up, she saw what she had done.

It was her best render yet. It captured his face in shadowed profile, the weight of his lid was heavy, the green a mere slit. He was looking in the distance, as if searching for someone and couldn't find them. Or was watching them go far away. A place where he couldn't follow.

Hesitantly her hand trailed over the paper, her finger ran down the length of his cheek.

She had drawn tears flowing from the eye.

(*~*)

"Ah, Gin..." there was a quiet, chiding note in his superior's tone. "Must you torment your playthings so?"

"Why..." Gin feigned innocence, "Sosuke, whatever do you mean?"

The look was measured, fraught with the meaning he didn't want to see.

Instead, Gin hummed to himself thinking of Rukia's dear little face scrunched up with pain and anger and it all being for the Cuatro Espada.

"I have an interest in that boy."

Gin pouted.

"However, I do believe I can indulge your request on another..." Aizen trailed off delicately, chocolate brown eyes narrowing in mirth, "Orihime Inoue will suffice."

~To be continued~

AN ;) thanks for reading!

No flames-haters-stupid comments!

Reviews appreciated! ^^


	20. Unforgivable

The order was nothing that unduly alarmed him. Why should it? It was merely to travel to the human world and dispatch of an orange-haired human female. Ulquiorra expected little or no resistance from the female as she was trash. He was sure even the slightest raising of his reiatsu would crush her to the ground.

Aizen-sama demanded no less than her head brought before him in the great dining hall.

_This_...he glanced about his surroundings. Yammy, the fool had begged to accompany him. No disturbance the Diez Espada could make would disrupt the flow of his mission. The crater they had made upon entry still wafted clouds of dust; he surveyed the humans approaching with thinly veiled disgust.

_Rukia was nothing like them_.

Their pitiful souls were soon devoured by Yammy's Konzui.

"So, what were we looking for?" The giant boomed over his shoulder, the large sandaled foot kicked around the dead bodies like cans.

"A human female named Orihime Inoue." Dispassionately Ulquiorra observed one of the humans had survived. _Dark hair..that isn't_..

"Hey, Ulquiorra! Is this the one?" Yammy pointed at the dark-haired female he had just noticed.

"No." his eyes closed.

"Oh. Is she trash then?" The giant began grinning stupidly again. Antsy just like a child for the blood to start pouring. "Yes. Trash." Ulquiorra said dismissively. _After all the human had no purpose_-

Yammy's kick was blocked.

Two humans had arrived. Slipping his hand from his pocket, Ulquiorra saw the head of bright orange hair falling thickly to the girl's shoulders. _Gray eyes_. _Definitely human_.

The girl stood protectively with her arms outstretched in front of the other trash.

"Huh? Who are you?" Despite Yammy's insistence that he would help him complete the mission, the fool had yet to remove his attention from the dark-skinned human whose transformed arm had been able withstand the blow. _The fool_.

"Orihime..take Tatsuki and get out of here like we agreed." The human male had sealed her fate. _Her identity had been confirmed_. _She would die as his Lord commanded_.

Ulquiorra disappeared in silent Sonido. Energy gathered at his fingertips.

"Okay..be careful Chad." The girl's words had barely left her lips when he was upon her.

He saw her eyes widen and her mouth part in a silent scream.

_Silent...just like the sound of the blood raining down her torso_.

(*~*) Las Noches~

His grin had thinned, she had noticed, when he had entered and first seen the picture mounted on her easel. "That's a very.." he hesitated, the nonsensical comment that had been on the tip of his tongue vanishing. Rukia was used to his games. She wouldn't be taken in so easily.

"It's Ulquiorra..."

"I can see that." he approached it warily, his smile fading.

"It's a good likeness," Rukia reached the easel first, deliberately letting her finger trace the line of the jaw. "Don't you think?"

There was the slightest glint of red from his eyes. A slight widening that though hardly visible to anyone who wasn't looking for it, was all she needed to know that he was displeased. Angry even. Like a predator circling trapped prey, she watched him from the corner of her eye as he moved away.

"Why haven't you worn any of the lovely dresses, Rukia-chan?" It was a feeble attempt to disguise the violent emotion he had let slip moments before. Rukia briefly weighed her chances of making it past him to the door left standing open. _They were slim_. Regretfully, she lifted her gaze from the temptation to the garment he had removed from the wardrobe at the other end of the room.

She regarded it distastefully. In truth the articles of clothing hung neatly within the confines of the spacious closet, were vaguely slutty in cut and style. Everything was in monochrome tones. White and black. Black sashes to skimpy white thigh-length skirts to halter-tops with long sleeve jackets with cutouts along the inner arm. Rukia could've done without the specific item he cheerfully asked her to wear-_for him_.

The grin was back.

_Or what? _Rukia ran the denial through her mind. _What could Ichimaru do...no_. Her eyes closed fitfully and she took in a few shallow breaths to clear her head. Better not to antagonize him. She knew enough of what he was capable of. His smile was what was disarming, she decided. Like the tiny warmth she had felt spark within her cold insides from Ulquiorra's silent acceptance. Ichimaru's smile sent shivers up her spine that weren't wholly derived from fear.

Irritated with herself over the indecipherable reactions of her body, Rukia yanked the garment from his hands. "Fine, but leave!" She pointed at the door, glaring. Ichimaru chuckled at her modesty. "Of course, of course!" he backed up, when she advanced with the threat of pushing him out herself. Not that she would've to begin with.

_His proximity..and his smile_. She found she couldn't keep her thoughts straight whenever he drew near. _But, what could that mean?_ Rukia heard the door close gently behind her and breathed a sigh of relief. Absently she rubbed at her arms out of habit, dusting off imaginary traces of his slithery snake-like presence from her body.

Her sigh was heavier this time. The garment she held seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. _If only she hadn't given in!_ Rukia chastised herself over and over again as she crossed the room to the opposite door that lead to the small bathroom. _Small...but tasteful_, she had to admit, stepping inside and quickly pulling the door shut.

_It wouldn't do to change out in the open_.

For extra measure she shot the bolt home.

Ichimaru could've changed his mind anytime and gone back in -_to help her_-

She shuddered but for a different reason.

Untying the narrow belt of the plain yukata, she slipped it off and folded it neatly atop the wicker hamper near the shower. The robe might've been a symbol of her imprisonment but it still served as a reminder of the punishment she had yet to receive.

Bearing that thought in mind, Rukia grimly surveyed the frivolous halter dress Ichimaru expected her to wear. It was vaguely styled like a shift with a flowing bodice and skirt with little pin-tucking to hug her breasts or hips. Rukia slipped into it, immediately feeling the difference between the close-fitting robe and the loose dress.

The only thing that piqued her was the tiny circlet of black that was the tie. It fastened about her throat with a tiny round black cloth button and looked like a collar. _One of his sick fetishes_, she thought angrily. _He wants to think he owns me_. Her dour thoughts soured even the reflection that stared back at her.

Stalking back into her room, she went to the closet and chose a pair of sandals and black socks that resembled the ones Ulquiorra wore. _Ulquiorra_...her thoughts turned to the green-eyed Arrancar as her fingers deftly fastened the straps of the footwear. _What was he doing? Was he even thinking of her?_ A quiet sigh left her parted lips. _It was alright, wasn't it? To wonder?_ _Sure she wanted to escape so badly, but...Only to give herself up to her previous captors. She had committed a great crime and therefore deserved to be punished for it_.

Slowly her head lifted, unable to stop her gaze from traveling to his picture on the easel. _Would he stop her...if he knew?_ Though she didn't deserve mercy, a part of her couldn't help but imagine..._wish he would_. But that was being selfish. She refused to be selfish anymore.

_Ulquiorra_...

Rukia stood, the dress flowed about her legs. The reflection of herself from the mirror passed through her mind and her cheeks grew a little warm.

..._would you think I was...pretty..if you could see me now?_

Taking a deep breath, she called out loudly, "I'm ready!"

(;.;)

He clasped the gory relic by the thick, clotted hair. Mindful not to stain his uniform so as to appear displeasing to his Lord, he held it at his side. Yammy plodded behind, disappointment heavy in his aura. Ulquiorra cared less. _His mission had been to retrieve the head of the human and he had done so, all that was left was to present it to his Lord_.

_Once he had been dismissed_...his thoughts turned inevitably to the woman. If he judged right, it would be near to dinner. Ichimaru hadn't given specific instructions; a stop at the kitchens would confirm whether or not her meal had been ordered and if so...

Lost in his planning; he was quite insensible passing through the high archway into the long, rectangular room. Aizen was seated at one end of the ornate banquet table. He said something smilingly to someone at the other end. Ichimaru was there too, flitting with his disturbing grin in the shadows. Ulquiorra was aware a deep silence had fallen at their entrance.

"Lord Aizen, Orihime Inoue's head as you requested." he held it out like an offering made to appease a heathen God. A smile twitched on Aizen's relaxed mouth. "On the platter, Ulquiorra." The ex Captain waved grandly to the empty silver salver beside the candelabra. Something mocking slipped into his falsely kind tone. "Facing Ms. Kuchiki please."

Slowly, Ulquiorra's chin tilted up, his eyes finally lifting to meet the horrified gaze of 'the guest' sitting at the opposite end of the table.

For a long moment that seemed to stretch into eternity, his fingers were threaded through the garish hair, the strings clung damply to his skin from the coagulating blood. Ichimaru watched from the sidelines, his ever-present grin growing sickeningly gleeful. Ulquiorra saw three emotions play out on her face.

_Elation_ at his arrival.

_Disbelief_ that he could not understand its source.

And lastly the one that suffused her paling face with the sheen of rage._ Hatred_.

"You monster..." Her whisper echoed within the room.

~To be continued~

AN: thanks for reading! :) I'd love to see Rukia's picture too! *hint, hint*

No flames-no haters-no stupid comments!

Reviews appreciated! ^^


	21. Hatred

Rukia could scarcely breathe for the horror that inundated her fragile psyche. _She should've known it would come to this. She shouldn't have trusted a human-like face and believed there to be shards of a soul remaining_.

"You monster..." she was barely conscious of the words leaving her benumbed lips.

_For me ...and for you_.

His green eyes, the depths as unfathomable to the last, lifted. Met her gaze. Some part of her expected remorse. Shame for what he had done. There was none of that. His eyes were devoid of emotion. His hands still slid the mass of meat into place on the salver. Rukia couldn't bring herself to lower her gaze to the wide-open staring eyes, the slack jaw and blood-flecked lips.

The gorge was rising in her.

"H-Have you n-n-nothing to s-say for yourself?" her shaking hand rose to cover her mouth, her eyes filled rapidly with tears that she tried desperately to hold back. Ulquiorra's tone was perfect, precise. With the least amount of wasted syllables. "I do not answer to you..woman."

There it was. _Woman_. The cold dismissal in his tone was evident, Rukia was vaguely surprised it hurt this much. _So that's all I've been reduced to_. Her breaths became short, tiny whimpers echoed from her chest. Her eyelids grew heavy with the weight of the moisture that they concealed. _Orihime! I'm sorry_...

Rukia stumbled from the table, self-consciously raising a hand to her forehead. "Excuse me, I-I don't feel so well." She was aware of Aizen's fake-kind worry and Ichimaru's grin.

"If you will excuse me, Aizen-sama? I must go attend to Rukia-chan."

She fled.

"That's fine, Gin. Take as long as you like."

(*~*)

_Monster_. The word rang throughout his consciousness. Ulquiorra knew he was that, an aberrant creature in the eyes of the Soul Society. _A monster. A Demon_. What made it so different with the truth spoken aloud by Rukia? Why was there a pain in the region of his sternum? Why did it bother him so, to know she thought of him that way?

There were no clear answers. None that he perceived at that moment. All he had done was carry out his Lord's will.

"H-Have you n-n-nothing to s-say for yourself?"

Ulquiorra observed her trembling lips and violet orbs with a sheen of tears glimmering over them. His gaze passed over the evidences of her emotion, dropping almost appraisingly over the silhouette she presented with the white halter dress. He could've said she looked nice. Very attractive in another sense. The white framed her pale skin quite nicely with the few accents of black to lessen the monotony. _Now she truly looked like one of them_.

This correlation suited his mind.

"I do not answer to you.._woman_." Ulquiorra hesitated to speak of the slight intimacy between them. Ichimaru was near, grinning for all the world as if he knew something secret. The grin and sly, secretive looks Ichimaru sent between himself and Rukia were enough to raise Ulquiorra's reservations. Any semblance of openness could not be shown when under such a close scrutiny. Ichimaru's motives and mind were a mystery to him, he couldn't even begin to fathom why the restraint Rukia was showing, should have amused Ichimaru so much.

Yet it did.

"Excuse me, I-I don't feel so well." she got up from her seat, walking on unsteady legs to the opposite doorway. He rescinded his previous appraisal. _She looked_ ** beautiful** _not merely_ **acceptable** _to his gaze_.

A few words of kindly concern from Aizen-sama passed over him, but Rukia waved them off.

He wanted to go after her.

But, a dismissal hadn't been given.

"If you will excuse me, Aizen-sama? I must go attend to Rukia-chan." Ichimaru's false, caressing tones dipped at the end around her name. Ulquiorra's mouth thinned ever so slightly. _That was not what she needed. She didn't like the man yet he was always forcing his company on her_. Once again, however, Ulquiorra had to remind himself it wasn't his place to question his superior no matter how displeasing it was to _see_ Rukia's discomfort.

"That's fine, Gin. Take as long as you like." His lord was calm, even smiling as his subordinate trailed after Rukia's shadow.

(*~*) Living world~

Blood stained the grass.

Urahara held him back at first then let him go, even Yoruichi had fallen silent at the headless body Chad cradled.

_I've...failed.._

"This was the work of an Arrancar."

_Once again_.

Ichigo dropped to his knees, the knowledge of his failure weighing his soul down like a millstone.

_I swear...Rukia...Orihime...I swear I'll get stronger and avenge you!_

~To be continued~

AN: thanks for reading ^^

No flames-haters-stupid comments!

Reviews appreciated! ^-^


	22. Tender Lie

"Oh, Rukia-chan..."

She froze, the tears rolling down her cheeks cold against the back of her hand as she frantically wiped them away. _I cannot show weakness...I won't!_ She hastily gulped several mouthfuls of air, spinning around to face the footfalls approaching from around the corner.

"Why did you look like you wanted to cry, Rukia-chan?" His shadow fell over her, his narrow pointed face creased with concern. That damnable grin...was gone. Rukia couldn't believe his worry to be sincere. _Ichimaru was a liar! And...and_...

_Ulquiorra_..

Her small hands balled up, nails pressing into her palms to suppress the trembling that shook her. "It's alright..." Ichimaru said more kindly, making no move to reach out for her. "There was nothin' more you could've done. That girl...she was your friend, wasn't she?"

Rukia nodded mutely, her tearless gaze riveted to the floor.

"I'm sure she was a kind girl..."

She knew the poisonous words that were going to fall and resolutely she hardened her heart against them.

"..but, Rukia-chan." Her eyes were drawn irresistibly upward to his uncommonly grave face. "I don't believe your friend would've wanted you to despise Ulquiorra and seek vengeance."

She could feel the outer shell she had just built up begin to crumble once again. _How-? This man..._

"Just think, Inoue-chan won't be lonely anymore. She's gone to a better place!" The words which seemed so incongruous coming from the thin-lipped silver-haired man to whom her natural despise sprung from began to lessen.

.._these words. Somehow...I think maybe...I was...wrong_.

(*~*)

Gin smiled. _How easy it was to manipulate Rukia-chan's emotions! A few kind words_...he **almost **felt a little...but even Gin wouldn't admit it to himself. Because that would accomplish exactly nothing save for acknowledging with a fleeting discomposure, the feeling within his chest.

But, Gin couldn't have that. Everything was going so well, so perfectly Rukia-chan fit in his arms. Granted, she had needed a slight push, some carefully chosen words that assured her accomplishing the opposite of what he said.

_Hate_. Gin smiled and slid his long, spider-thin fingers through her raven hair.

Rukia shivered at his touch and struggled some.

Ever aware of the paper thin line of trust, he released her without a word

_That's all little Rukia-chan could do was hate and loath the one whom had slain her friend so cruelly_.

Gin whistled a happy tune, once she was safely locked up ...in her _cage._

(*~*)

Ulquiorra withdrew the folded square of thick sketch pad paper from his pocket. His agile fingers smoothed over the creases, working swiftly to reveal the image she had drawn.

_Rukia_...

In the quiet darkness of his room, he stared down at the clean, thick lines and viridian eye from where tears flowed. His hand, a pale milk-white appendage encased in a slender white with black trim sleeve, rose. Fingers trailing down the tear-tracks etched permanently onto his face.

-To be continued-

AN: thanks for reading ~.~ sleepy.

No flames-haters-stupid comments!

Reviews appreciated ^^


	23. Separation

Powerless.

She despised the feeling more than the tears she held back. The feeling was truth, a painful reality of her own weakness. As much as her heart ached and her hands longed for Sode no Shirayuki's familiar hilt and weight to pierce Orihime's murderer's chest...

She was no fool. He was much more powerful than her.

Balling her fists, she clutched them tight to her chest. Her breaths were deep, her eyelids screwed shut to the white room. _But...I-I have to try. Even if I lose my life...I cannot allow him to live!_

Orihime wouldn't have wanted that. Inwardly Rukia knew that Ichimaru's words were true. To die seeking revenge against her killer. Orihime wanted her to live, even if she was guilty. Abruptly Rukia stopped her pacing, swiveling about to face the easel and the picture she had drawn. _Why, Ulquiorra? Why would you do this to me?_ In her mind, the very outline and form of his face had been imprinted within her memory.

Her eyes narrowed, focusing in on the blank surface.

"I-It's...gone?"

(*~*)

_I fulfilled my duty_. Logic deduced that the course he was chose was wise. Surely Rukia understood that it was his 'duty' to obey Aizen and carry out whatever tasks-be it ridding the world of the pitiful trash such as the Inoue woman; he was given.

And if she couldn't. Did not see the logic of this, then she was foolish.

But, Ulquiorra couldn't countenance associating the word 'foolish' with the Shinigami.

-Rukia **wasn't** foolish- he insisted.

Her angry emotions and response had been unexpected, yet Ulquiorra knew they were somehow guided by the so-called 'heart'. But, didn't that make her weak? He considered the heart useless, ineffectual and of being the sole reason for weakness within the hearts and minds of the Soul society Shinigami.

_The 'heart' dictated their actions and fueled their petty fights amongst themselves. _

_But, as a Hollow, he had cast off the vestiges of the heart and grown strong_.

His steps took him outside the closed door. Briefly his mind turned back to the portrait she had done_. The tears_. _In a fleeting moment when he had seen her bravely holding back her_ _emotions, her expression rigid in cold fury; a passing desire had touched his thoughts._

_The longing to hold her, to let the fragile mask break_.

Ichimaru had comforted her instead.

Ulquiorra had been less than pleased to sense his reiatsu around her, after a moment's longer dismissal had left him with the empty satisfaction of his Lord's brief recognition. Meaningless words given with cruelty hidden behind the kind demeanor. Ulquiorra had accepted them with a bow of formality and left to hide the coldness he felt within himself.

His logical reasoning persisted that it shouldn't exist.

This sensation like that of a bleak void. As if part of himself had been cut away. Yet this in itself was irrational. He bore no wound or mark of injury but the feeling remained.

_Could it be-?_

His irradiant green eyes fell to the panel of the door sliding open at his touch.

..._was it her presence he lacked?_

On the floor, lying in tangled blankets, Rukia lay in uneasy slumber. Ulquiorra's gaze roved greedily past her parted lips and displaced strands of dark hair slipping onto her face. _What was she dreaming of?_ He wondered, gliding forward cloaked within the night's embrace.

"Rukia.." the same wistfulness, the same emotions that had possessed his mind, robbing it of reason came now. Warning knew that if he showed interest, deigned to stray away from that which was expected of him, Ichimaru would know.

_These feelings_. His hands longed to slip from the confines of his pockets, the hands she had seen stained with the blood of the trash. With those hands Ulquiorra wanted to stain her purity with his filth and despair. He acknowledged the worthlessness of the world and he as a part of it, yet she whom had become almost exalted-something almost precious to his downcast gaze, was free of it.

_Like white snow_. His fingertips trailed over her pale cheek. In her deep slumber, a soft murmur of contentment echoed. Already her hatred of him had slowly begun to poison her. Like the darkness that steadily absorbed the light, devouring all that lay within its sphere, so was her heart blackening.

His fingertips traced the shape of her lips, one dipping in, caressing the soft pink down.

Rukia's soft sigh became a moan.

_Loath me until your soul bleeds with hatred and darkness_.

"Hate me." Ulquiorra whispered.

_Just never forget me_.

(*~*)

"How sweet..." Gin's voice echoed in the large white walled room.

The camera relayed the images of Rukia's room to the screen where he avidly watched the Espada's tender caresses.

"Such a simple yet possessive wish." Gin tapped his long fingers on the controller console. "While I will have Rukia-chan's love..." his smile grew, "you will have nothing but her hate. Poor little 'Kyorra...even though it was all you deserve."

His laughter echoed long and mirthful within the room of the immense Palace.

~To be continued~

AN: thanks for reading! *Remember, this has diverged from canon from way in the Soul society/Rukia's execution days. There is NO GinRan here and most likely no reunion for them either. I repeat: this is au. :)

No flames-haters-stupid comments!

Reviews appreciated!


	24. Dream

It was the same dream she'd had the night before her execution: of the night when she had murdered Kaien Shiba. Like with all lucid nightmares, she awoke in the darkness not quite seeing the vision of rain and blood that splattered her robes, fading.

_"Hate me.."_ the Kaien in her dream had said, leaning heavily against her small frame. Then somehow...it was no longer Kaien. Rukia knew even though she couldn't see his face, just feel the slender quality of the body in her arms. It was Ulquiorra, the same cadence and quiet solemnity present as he whispered in her ear.

_"Just never forget me."_

_It was Ulquiorra she had run through with her sword._

_The quasi-fulfillment of the revenge she had sworn hadn't left her with any sort of satisfaction. Rather...emptiness_...

She started halfway up in the night-filled room, arms outstretched, hands blindly searching for Ulquiorra's body; in the dream raindrops had dampened her cheeks but now she knew it was tears. "..orra." Her hand closed on empty air, slowly falling to her lap. It was true. He wasn't there...but...

Ichimaru's words came to her again.

Orihime wouldn't have wanted her to seek impossible revenge.

But, such things were possible! She wasn't weak...

The hands she had dropped, lifted, pressing fingertips to her lips. _Was that dream a warning then? If burning with the desire for vengeance, she killed him...would she regret it?_

(*~*)

Ulquiorra observed the flickering of her orbs beneath the lids. Rapid. _Perhaps her dreams were disturbed?_ Curiosity made him stay, sliding back into the shadows when he perceived her awakening. Her body lax before in the throes of sleep, jerked upright, hands blindly feeling the darkness for something-or some_one_.

"...orra." She mumbled, her small hands curling loosely to fall back into her lap. Some surprise seeped into the detachment he had attempted to maintain with her and thus so far had failed in. _His name..?_ _Not...?_ Though the improbability of this was assured, Ulquiorra perceived there to be something-

_She was crying?_ The sheen of moisture glistened beneath each eye. Tears proved she was weak part of him denounced, yet another part saw them as tears for something else other than her situation or the human whom had been trash.

_She was-... crying for him_. The realization was startling even to he whom nothing in the world existed without his sight first perceiving it. _She cared for him_... Ulquiorra understood that now. Within her fragile, weak human heart there existed feeling, even if he denied the existence of the hearts from the Shinigami; here. Now. There was one whom had rendered all of his assumptions to nothing.

_Rukia_... though she belonged to Ichimaru; the longing to possess her deepened. Ulquiorra took a single silent step forward even as the door slowly slid open...

-*-To be continued-*-

AN: No reviews equal no updates.

No flames either.


	25. Mentiras of the heart

-Mentiras of the heart-

Lost in her thoughts, Rukia quite failed to see the movement in the darkness, her hands clenched on the tops of the covers lying at her waist. Confusion had taken a hold of her, she had never felt this way about anyone before, _so strange..so fluttery-?_

Those days spent at Mount Kofu in the Soul Society, in the company of Kaien Shiba had left her with almost- yet not quite the same feeling. Less intense. More of reddened cheeks and her heart starting at any little compliment he could deign to give out as encouragement. Compared to this..there was almost no resemblance.

_It couldn't be_..Rukia had always heard that love was blind but had sworn to herself it would never happen to her. If the dream had been a product of her own subconscious feelings that she wasn't aware of, then she didn't want to take revenge on Ulquiorra, because she felt something else...

That thing called **Love**.

She would be the first to scoff at it. _Call it ridiculous_-

A sudden sound made her head snap up, her heart began racing with something that wasn't fear. Though it was impossible that he could be there, she whispered it anyway, "Ulquiorra?"

The door opened, light from the brightly-illumined hallway spilled across the Espada's frozen form. Rukia blinked rapidly to rid her sight of the spots that danced before it. In the doorway stood one of the servants, alike in their long-sleeved striped dresses. She recognized this one-though being numerous and nameless, as being one that sometimes brought meals if _someone else_ didn't.

"Rukia-sama, Ichimaru-sama has sent this up in relief to your disturbed night." Balanced on a plain silver tray was a glass of foamy milk.

_H-how did_- she didn't dare slide her gaze to Ulquiorra.

"La Cuatro," the mechanical tones of the servant were nothing like _his_ she saw now. "Ichimaru-sama has also requested that you leave Rukia-sama's room."

Silence. Rukia stole a tiny peek, glimpsing his face devoid of all emotion, _like usual_ she thought crossly, unable to read his expression as he coolly walked past the automaton-like Arrancar.

Never looking back once.

(*)*)*)*)*)

_Ichimaru's way was displeasing to him_, walking back up the hall, hands in pockets, the air of apathetic disinterest worn. Like with all things, Ulquiorra perceived the slight, if not subtle reminder in the Shinigami sending the servant.

_I know_.

The surveillance system of Las Noches undoubtedly was how Ichimaru was watching them. _As befitting a man of his disposition whom slunk through the grasses with a poison tongue like a snake_. Ulquiorra couldn't approve of such underhanded methods. Whatever he had in store for Kuchiki Rukia wasn't any of _his_ concern.

However that disturbed him, though there was no reason why it should being as true undeniable reality. He saw now that he desired her company, to some extent it was reciprocated yet she still belonged to another.

This had only been a warning-

One that he was meant to heed.

But, his Lord hadn't forbidden it. Ichimaru was an aid to Aizen-sama yet Ulquiorra saw nothing yet of the results Ichimaru had helped bring about.

Ulquiorra resolved then that under no circumstance barring a restrictive command from his Lord, would he sunder Kuchiki Rukia to the hands of the ex Taichou.

(*)*(*(*(*)

The glass of milk was warm yet not scalding. It soothed her throat and left a vague warm mellow feeling in the pit of her stomach, easing the edge off. Rukia wouldn't say thank you, despite the ill-manneredness of it. She was still too angry over the fact that he was spying on her-probably since the beginning.

Rankled, her eyes swept the corners of the room, wondering just where the device was located. It gave her chills to even contemplate the notion that there could be one in the bathroom. _Pervert_...strange though. She wouldn't have pegged him for such voyeuristic behavior that was more up Urahara's alley.

Yes, the man made her flesh crawl...though lately Rukia was more disturbed by the realization that she kind of..._liked it_. Rather than the slithering, sinuous sensation be repulsive- but no! She couldn't afford for her feelings to be softening toward the man whom had singled her out for his attentions during her early Shinigami days!

He was repulsive-

-he was...

**Confusing**.

Shaking her fists in the semi-darkness of the room, Rukia glowered at the Chappy nightlight the Arrancar servant had brought along with the milk.

She hated to admit how touched she was by that gesture. The reassuring glow of the tiny moon over the sleeping bunny, cast vague illumination over the easel in the corner and slanted over the floor.

_So, yes...Gin was an enigma._

_How could one be so repellent in words yet show so much kindness in deeds?_

There was of course the possibility of it being a lie. A way for her to let her guard down and then...what would be the purpose? _He already had her as a prisoner, so what more was there-?_

But, somehow her gut instinct said it wasn't that. No matter how wary she had been of accepting anything from the silver-tongued Shinigami, she had mostly done it without question.

_"What do you want from me?" _

_"Nothing...'cept of course for you to love me." _

Rukia couldn't forget then either, what he had said to her after Kaien's death.

_"Don't be so sad! Just think that Shiba-san and his wife are together now! You wouldn't have wanted them to stay separated even if it meant he had lived, now would you?" _

She just didn't know what to think of the man.

Then..Ulquiorra. _What had he been doing in her room and most importantly...had he heard her?_ Having no clear answer to anything frustrated her beyond belief. She wanted to receive her punishment from Soul Society for her crime, yet at the same time wholly didn't desire the true death that would most certainly await her within the white city.

If she was executed...then she wouldn't be able to see Ulquiorra ever again. But, that was silly... she wasn't frightened anymore of the thought of her demise, but saddened of not being able to see him again with her own eyes...

(*)*(*(*(*)Living world(*)*(*(*(*)

"Ichigo..."

Surprised yet not unduly put on guard, the orange-haired substitute glanced over his shoulder at Urahara's approach. Yoruichi looked as well, but then went back to her warm-up routine before they commenced the Shunpo session. Being the Goddess of Flash meant that she still had some tricks to teach.

"Yeah? What is it?" Ichigo mopped his forehead with a damp towel, wiping away the hours' worth of sweat. Urahara surveyed him for a time, saying nothing yet lacking the usual easygoing foppery that had so aggravated Rukia_. Rukia.._ the deep furrow lessened. It was much easier to think of the midget than the one he had failed.

"About..Kuchiki-san."

Now he was surprised. Urahara had picked up on his thoughts. Amber eyes narrowed. "What about her?"

The shopkeeper's gaze intensified, though his tone remained relatively light, "I must ask ..how do you **feel **toward her?"

-TBC...

AN: thanks for reading :)

I know everybody's been asking how it will end CX and to that I have to say I know how it's going to end. ;p no spoilers! But it will be GinxRukia CX

No flames-haters-stupid comments!

Reviews appreciated and loved! :D


	26. Calm before the storm

What lay at the end of escape? It was a question she had asked herself many times, each time supplying without variation the answer.

Punishment. Execution.

What she deserved for breaking the law and giving Ichigo her powers- even if he had potential already. She had just tapped it, in retrospect changing his life forever.

So, wasn't that enough to be guilty?

She paused in eating the breakfast one of the Arrancar servants had unobtrusively stayed behind to make sure she ate every bite. That did bother her a little, being watched with such solemn, sad eyes. They were all eternally respectful, using the honorific -sama when addressing her and always excruciatingly polite entering and leaving.

Rukia supposed then that this proved Hollows could be domesticated in a sense.

She could think of a few others- Kisuke Urahara notwithstanding who would just love to get their hands on these specimens of evolved Hollows. Ulquiorra too. Somehow that gave her a shudder, thinking of the green-eyed Arrancar, his powers-sealed and en route to a laboratory within Seireitei. There was no doubt in her mind that her side would win the war...

But, then what would happen to them?

She had to pause at that thought and wonder just who was _'them'?_

"I'm done." she said distantly, laying aside her chopsticks.

_**Them**_...nebulous as it was, Ulquiorra and Ichimaru-? Rukia barely heard the courtesy paid to her nor the squeak of the wheels as the cart was rolled away. _How disturbing was the idea that she should be concerned about her captor?_

(*)*)*)

"..Something wrong, Lord Aizen?"

The eyes narrowed on the pillar, resting place of the orb of distortion, lifted briefly, the look in them inscrutable. Gin knew another Hollow had been brought in. A small one by all accounts, so the rebirthing was going to take place immediately.

Gin noted the unusual silence on the other's part, raising his voice so that it echoed and rebounded in the great white room. "Is something wrong withthe_ Hogyoku_, Lord Aizen?" The artifact had been the principal point of the man's interest so it was only conclusive to assume something of interest had occurred with it?

_Perhaps it had fully awakened ahead of schedule-? _

In which case, their plans could come to fruition.

But, there was no change in the man's expression. "Gin...how is Ms. Kuchiki?"

A little surprised, he kept his face smooth, the hint of a smile lurking on the edges. "My little Rukia-chan is fine. Been making some progress with her." The grin was back. Gin could never keep a _straight face_ while talking about Rukia.

"..I see." Speculative. Aizen had a look in his eyes. A narrow tautness that Gin had only seen once when the man's plan had been close to unraveling from the seams. Aizen had of course foreseen the difficulty and avoided failure.

_But, now-? Why the look?_ Gin tilted his head to the side, his smile slipping a little farther. "Lord Aiz-"

The doors opened.

The Espadas filed in. Some scowling like the teal-haired Sexta or impassive like Ulquiorra.

The green-eyed Cuatro did not look his way, eyes tilted ahead. Perhaps it was simply his nature to be so silent, since even Gin had to admit there wasn't much to look at around Las Noches. Nothing but sand and the moon outside their faux canopy-world.

Nothing to do but to play with Rukia-chan.

He forgot Aizen's mood just then, in favor of the violet-eyed little butterfly upstairs.

The smile came back. Wider than ever.

Gin could never help but smile so happily when thinking of all the new things to do with his little Rukia-chan.

(*)*)*)Living world(*)*)*)

_That way_.

"-A-As a friend! How else!" Ichigo could just feel Yoruichi's devilish cat-grin smirking at him behind his back. Just a friend. The whole designation remained unspoken. Urahara absorbed this for a moment or so.

Platonic was how he wished their relationship _to be seen_.

Failing Inoue made it so. For how wrong would it be to go the extra lengths for the survivor just 'cause she meant more than Inoue did?

"I understand." The shopkeeper watched his face, then lightly tipped his striped hat. "Please don't overexert yourself...Ichigo."

The man walked away. _Just that?_ Amazed at the reticence showed, he began to wonder if age was affecting the elder's senses. _What happened to all the mysteriousness? Certainly even a little tease was normal. So, then why-_

Confusion clouded his face, aware of the woman standing to his left, less weighted bands on her forearms and calves.

Ichigo started to become irritated at the way Yoruichi looked at him- like she knew something he didn't.

"Just a friend!" he snapped, blurting out the denial even though his face felt hot. _Damn the fake weather too_.

The cats' eyes flickered, the slightest of nods dipping the violet ponytail. "I didn't say anything, Ichigo. But I do wonder.." the hint of a cocky smirk played on her lips, "who is it you're trying so hard to convince?"

The woman phased from sight in a crackling burst.

Leaving only her words to echo in his mind.

..._who is it you're trying so hard to convince?_

The teen stared down at his clenched fists, slowly raising them to open, palm up to the fake sky of the training ground. "_Everyone_...or _myself?" _ he whispered.

-TBC...

AN: thanks for reading!

No flames-haters-stupid comments!

Reviews appreciated and loved! :)


	27. I'm sorry

The door was left open, quite a rare occurrence.

So, rare, that Rukia had a hard time believing her eyes as she finished sketching.

_Unlocked. Open_. As she stood cautiously, almost half-expecting Ichimaru to pop out of nowhere and startle her- _he was good at doing things like that_; she crept to the aperture. Peering out, taking in the sight of the blissfully empty hallway, high-ceilinged and...white.

She had to wonder how no one ever went mad from simply living in all that whiteness.

Shaking her head to clear it- now was not the time to be thinking of such frivolous things! _She had to...she had to-escape!_ Steeling her legs to run at the first sight of an Arrancar, Rukia stepped out, her sandaled feet clicking quietly in the stillness. A little regretfully she looked back and saw her favorite Chappy plushie staring with sad blue eyes near her easel.

It would only slow her down.

Moving fast then, she trekked up the long corridor, pausing intermittently to listen for any sounds. _Quiet_. Feeling a little bolder, she crossed a larger space, violet eyes flickering back and forth warily, her dress flowed around her legs. A pretty garment yet the skirt was flowy enough so as not to restrict movement. Rukia wasn't sure how long she could go without being discovered, not even if there was a way she could get back to Soul Society.

Her confidence began to lag. How could she...a Zanpaku-to-less Shinigami hope to get back to her proper world? Scowling to herself, she berated her lack of spirit.

Then, cursed Ichimaru.

If it hadn't been for him and his ...whatever it was. She didn't want to believe he was sincere since the man never was, her heart as well as her head knew it. But, if not for him...

A break in the corridor left the choice between two different passages. One was long and doorless, the other had a set of large double doors at the end of it. She was going to choose the less inhabited one.

Then, _something_ called to her.

Her legs wouldn't obey her, turning back toward the double doors.

_What was beyond there-?_

Fisting her hands in the loose material of her dress, she walked forward, knowing she couldn't be wasting time, knowing any minute she could be caught. Yet the pull was there.

Was undeniable.

Carefully, oh, so carefully, she placed her small hand against one side of the doors, pushing her palm against a panel, then slowly advancing as it gave way silently. The room she entered seemed massive, a great echoing chamber cloaked in silence and shadow. The rooms she had been allotted seemed meager in compare to the sheer size of the hall.

_Calling_.

Rukia felt it from the depths of her soul, tugging, drawing her nearer to something she couldn't see.

She stepped down instinctively as the floor sloped down into three shallow steps. Descending, she paced to the center, stifling the startled cry in her throat as a shifting, grinding sound echoed up from the seemingly whole floor, tiles parting to let a tiny column-like dais to rise. Upon which resided a solid black orb.

_Was that what had called her-?_

Confusion burned within her soul, clouding her eyes as she reached for it. Though Rukia had never seen the artifact as she had been unconscious when it had been plucked from within her Konpaku; she knew what it was.

_The Hogyoku_.

"Were you..calling me?" Almost immediately after she had spoken, she felt silly doing so. _It was just an inanimate object-a-_

"I am impressed, Ms. Kuchiki." The sound of clapping filled the air, a cool baritone voice which she recognized though had never heard much in her life before; belonged to a handsome man with curling dark brown hair and a smug smirk perched on his well-defined lips.

"C-Captain Aizen-!" The old addressal slipped past her lips before she could even stop it. "I-I don't understand-"

He smiled wider at her confusion. "What is there to understand, Ms. Kuchiki, hmm?"

His gaze drifted down to the small orb cupped in her hands, his look darkened a shade. "You've passed the Hogyoku's test quite admirably well, I'd say."

"What are you talking-"

A pitying look. "The Hogyoku has chosen you as its bearer. You will learn to assimilate with it and in time...become one wholly with the orb."

"N-No.." her eyes widened in horror as she realized the terrible meaning of his words. It had called her- and she had answered- no. No! It simply couldn't be-!

Aizen motioned to the undulated shadows, a smiling pink-haired male in white with square-frame glasses looked her over cursorily. "Good evening, my dear. I am Szayel Aporro-Grantz, primary weapons expert of Las Noches Palace. If you'll be so kind as to come with me, please?"

She backed up when he extended a fingerless-gloved hand in her direction. It was an innocuous- looking hand yet it filled her with vague unease. The object in her hands pulsed sympathetically, her nervous gaze dropping to it. _She hadn't put it back_. _She didn't want to..put it back_.

"There are some tests I'd like to run on you." The Arrancar continued cheerfully, seemingly oblivious to her distrustful looks. "Now, come. Time's a wasting!" Szayel stepped forward, his fingers twitching toward her elbow. Rukia jerked out of the way with an angry cry.

"What is this...Rukia-chan?"

She stiffened at the voice yet another stronger sensation arose within her breast. She thought she had never been so...so..glad to hear his voice. _Unbelievable the day when she would ever look to Gin Ichimaru and think she had been saved_.

"Ichim-"

"Gin." Aizen said, neither pleased nor displeased. His expression showing little though Rukia with a furtive glance thought she caught something of vague displeasure flitting at the edges of the man's unperturbed mask.

The other's smile slipped as he approached. "What is going on?"

She could almost hear the cogs of his mind turning, wondering- _why she was out of her room_.

"I invited Rukia-chan here to show her something." A measured look full of meaning passed between the two men; the Arrancar stood out of it, smiling benignly on the proceedings with casual indifference.

"What did you discover, Aizen-sama?"

"..Something indeed most astounding." Aizen gestured to her, his smile slick, shallow and false falling upon her head. "Ms. Kuchiki's soul has bonded to the Hogyoku. It recognizes .._her_ as its master."

The air thickened, she felt faint.

Gin looked slowly between them, his smile still missing. Somehow he seemed incomplete without it. "Is this true, Rukia-chan?"

"I..I..." _what could she say? _ "I don't know." Rukia shot defiantly, glaring back at Aizen. Determinedly, she thrust her fist out, fingers opening to reveal the perfect-sized orb resting in the palm of her hand. "And I don't care. Take it! I don't want it!"

His smile wavered then strengthened, charming as he had always been, ever to fool the minds and hearts of Seireitei's best; he extended no threat. No verbal abuse to ease her into submission.

Merely a few words whispered into her ear.

Meant for no one else but her.

"You- but that's crazy! That's-" she cried moments later, twisting away from the man's insanity lest it corrupt her thoughts.

"Impossible?" Aizen queried with a faint smile. His shook his head briefly, "to a once mortal bound by death to serve a Godless world, then perhaps true re-attainment of the soul is..but come now, Ms. Kuchiki. Isn't it the least bit- how shall we say, _tempting?"_

She wavered.

Gin looked confused, not understanding the few words that had been spoken to her.

_The heart restored_.

She wavered even more. Lips trembling, hands shaking around the orb. Then, she turned partially away, "forget it. I don't want ..any part of your sick schemes, Aizen!"

The man sighed. "I assumed as much. I regret to say Ms. Kuchiki..." his dark eyes slanted none so kindly over her face, hard, malicious. His lip curled to reveal perfect, even white teeth. "You haven't a choice. Not anymore."

Szayel stepped forward once again.

Gin made a move as well; then Aizen held him back with a look and his name as a reminder.

"Gin."

She looked to him as her arms were seized.

Struggling, though silent, eyes locked on his face, _pleading_.

But, Gin didn't move, but his smile never came back either. "Rukia-chan..."

There _might_ have been more.

There _could_ have been more.

Just two words.

As she was slowly dragged away by the smiling scientist, they came to her in a whisper.

_"I'm sorry."_ Deep within her heart...she forgave him that little bit.

Gin Ichimaru had never showed remorse for his actions, yet now...in the simplest of ways, he had.

_I'm sorry...for everything_.

Tears brimmed behind her eyelids as she was led down the hallway, deeper into Las Noches.

_Why...oh, why couldn't he have simply said that from the beginning?_

-TBC..

AN: thanks for reading! ;.; sorry it took so long for me to update...

No flames!

Reviews please! :)


	28. Experiment

She was afraid.

Once they were out in the corridor, she let loose a wild shriek of fury. Twisting, kicking. Gnashing her teeth like a wild beast on the eve of capture.

_But, I have been captured already_.. she thought dizzily as one of the Arrancar orderlies slapped her about the face, momentarily taking the fight out of her.

"Now, now, Jagara. Be careful." Szayel chided always close at hand.

Her vision swam and then he was right there, peering into her face.

"Ms. Kuchiki is a very precious element in our Lord's plan now. We wouldn't want her to be damaged irreparably."

The scientist's feigned kindly tones disgusted her. She could hear the maddened glee hidden behind every chuckle and see the strange light burning in the depths of his small eyes behind the square bone frames.

"Get ...away." Rukia whimpered, clenching her teeth to halt the grunt of pain from escaping. They had dragged her a considerable distance from Aizen's chambers. She realized her subtle stupidity in not fleeing- in not ignoring the pull from the depths of her soul.

_Baka_- she called herself as her weakening punches had little effect.

"Come on, Shinigami!" growled the first Arrancar.

She felt herself lifted up into the air, another half-scream half-cry about to leave her throat when something sharp jabbed into the upper part of her arm.

"-Nooooo!"

Szayel shook his head at her sob. "Sorry, my dear. But, we don't need you to be making such a fuss while we begin. Perhaps a little self-restraint should be learned in the future." he said, tapping the bridge of his glasses up higher.

Rukia wanted to snap out something.

To retort that he could shove his advice up where the sun never shines.

Anything, but the dimming in her vision and her own helplessness as she fell under.

White flickered into her sight.

Raising her drooping head, she vainly tried to see past her jailers.

"..Ulqui.."

(*)

Glazing violet-blue eyes. Ferocity dimming in them.

"..Ulqui.." she had started to say in recognition. The Octava stood back, holding aloft an emptied hyperdermic needle. They were taking her to his lab.

All this Ulquiorra had processed within a mere moment.

Logic questioning _why?_

But, he knew he had to report back to Aizen-sama about the status of his mission.

Kuchiki Rukia would have to wait.

(*)

Szayel stared after the Cuatro's back. In all of the Arrancars banded together beneath Aizen's flag of power. His, perhaps was the most impossible to fathom.

Mind. Thoughts.

For a moment, the scientist had thought he had glimpsed a flicker of something indescribable in the cold green eyes of the other upon glimpsing the Shinigami's flaccid form.

But, that was impossible. Szayel told himself with a quick indiscernible shake.

Kuchiki Rukia couldn't elicit a response from the deadened, nihilistic Arrancar, now could she?

_No..that went beyond his capacity of reasoning_-

"Lord Szayel?" The orderlies got his attention.

Szayel nodded briskly forward, "carry on."

(*)

Gin stayed behind Aizen's chair.

Barely hearing a word as the man enunciated his most sincere hopes of what Szayel's experiments would glean.

Rukia-chan's face and expression was all he saw.

"Gin...are you listening to me?" Aizen's tone interlaced with delicate suspicion followed by an even keener glance like a dagger carving a path through the air, was felt by the tall silver-haired Shinigami.

"..course. Always, Aizen-sama." He said with a smile.

In the silence that followed his simple answer, a cool, well-modulated voice announced:

"Ulquiorra, entering."

Both awaited as one side opened. Light spilled in from the white corridor that had swallowed up Rukia-chan's smaller figure struggling in vain from the larger, heavier monsters.

Ulquiorra appeared in the aperture of illumination.

Aizen motioned for him to step forward.

Gin watched the Arrancar obey. Always perfect. Always obedient. The simple yet inhuman grace in the white-sleeve capped arm folding across the thin, narrow chest and the incline of the raven head.

"The mission has been completed to satisfaction, my Lord." The Arrancar said without preamble.

"Excellent, Ulquiorra." Aizen praised with a faint smile, then tilted his chin in a decidedly questioning manner. "...was there an aspect of the mission that troubled you?"

Gin didn't see what Aizen saw.

To him the Arrancar was the same.

Then, he was surprised, but he didn't show it of course.

"To what purpose is the Shinigami Kuchiki Rukia's removal to SzayelAporro's care?"

A deeper silence fell.

Gin watched Aizen watch Ulquiorra.

The Espada remained unflinching despite the probing look.

"It is..in the interest of the advancement of my plans." Aizen said at last, soothing with a smile to fool the Gods. "That Ms. Kuchiki be removed from Gin's care." Coffee brown eyes flickered to him, he stayed motionless, a smile stretching his lips.

"At least for now." Aizen amended courteously.

"Anything you say, Aizen-sama." Gin said cheerfully.

Inside he felt..._differently_.

_Rukia-chan_.

He didn't know what to do.

(*)

His mind wasn't at ease.

Disturbed was the sensation. An unquiet, Ulquiorra associated with knowing Kuchiki Rukia was in SzayelAporro's hands.

That lacked rationality.

Unless Aizen-sama willed it, Rukia wouldn't be harmed under so slight a case as Szayel being made her guardian.

A little voice inside questioned the wisdom of such a move.

_Why weren't we made Rukia's guardian?_

'It was Aizen-sama's decision.' He reminded the voice, the door snapping shut to the heavy silence encompassing Las Noches. He wondered at it yet preferred the unbroken stillness. Then, he could think.

He could contemplate-

_Rukia_.

Ulquiorra sighed at the extraneous, uncalled for observation on his part.

He did deny that he had thought of the petite Shinigami during the time of his leave from Las Noches on the mission.

Impassive. Stoical, beneath the surface teemed different thoughts.

Subtle curiosities that gave him no peace during waking.

He had assumed once glimpsing her face, his mind would be at ease. Yet now...

Closing his viridian gaze to the window he had paused briefly at..

Her face remained.

Haunting.

His lord's words had lacked the reassurance something within the Espada needed.

_Why?_

He contemplated simply questioning Ichimaru then dismissed the notion. The man was peculiar in many ways, not the least that he was the one whom had brought the woman from Soul Society in the beginning.

He still didn't believe she was in true danger.

A step echoed quietly in the corridor behind him. Ulquiorra opened his eyes, staring at the reflection of the taller man hovering silently over his shoulder.

"Ichimaru-san." He said in a flat tone of respect.

The man fidgeted, unsmiling with a strange almost nervousness to his posture. "Ulquiorra..I must speak to you."

He was going to walk away. Green eyes sweeping past the ex Taichou to further up the hallway. A thin, long-fingered hand shot out, capturing him above the wrist. Ichimaru's hold was stronger than he'd have first presumed.

"Release me."

"..no. It's about Rukia-chan."

At her name, he hesitated.

Ichimaru saw, and drew in closer, his mouth straight lacking its usual happy grin. "For her sake-"

He stiffly broke the Shinigami's grip.

"-hear me out!"

Ulquiorra's narrow glance went to the shadowed corners of the high ceiling.

Ichimaru understood, "don't worry about them." The long fingers flipped palm up, beseechingly outstretched. "You're the only one...please."

Surprised at the tone of near pleading; Ulquiorra at war with himself, impassively turned back. Letting his silent attention speak for itself.

Relief broke out over the Shinigami's narrow, pointed face. "Good! But, we must hurry! Come on..."

-TBC

AN: sorry for the late update! Thanks for reading!

No flames!

Reviews please :-)


	29. Rampancy

"...amniotic fluid levels stable."

The voice came from outside the glass sphere.

Sluggishly, her eyelids flickered, desiring to lift. The effort it cost was great.

"Energy output nearly at maximum levels." The clicking of a pen against a clipboard, a smile in the saccharine male voice. "Aizen-sama shall be pleased."

_Aizen_. She knew the name, accompanied by a wave of such intense loathing, the glass vibrated with a distant hum. Air bubbles streamed. The man she couldn't see, moved. Clicks of buttons echoed distantly, worry strained his tones as he queried others on inducing stabilization fluid.

The sound of air released from a pressurized room came as footsteps sounded across tile.

"I-Ichimaru-san. Ulquiorra-?"

The man- Arrancar- Szayel questioned. Clarity came in short bursts as a new substance was introduced into the watery suspension. Somehow...she felt calmer. Weightless. But, the probing remained.

She could _hear_.

_Feel_ them.

"Ah, Octava-kun! How is Rukia-chan today?" The slippery, low voice of that man, didn't bring with it the accompanying chill that it had before. Though she couldn't see him; she could _feel_ Gin Ichimaru's reddish slit eyes on her.

The effect was entirely different.

Her heart began a sluggish, staccato beat.

She recognized the sensation yet instinctively knew it _wasn't_ fear anymore.

Another voice, this one quiet with little force, yet powerful in the same instance, vibrated in the still, stale air of the laboratory. "Aizen-sama wishes to see true results from your experimentation on the Shinigami."

It hurt.

_Shinigami_- spoken in his cool, modulated tones.

She tried not to dwell on it.

_He_ was here- _they_ both were.

"-I know! I know!" Szayel's irritation was evident. "Can't you see how much progress has been made?" Sandals clicked across the floor. "The progression rate of the change between Hollow to Arrancar has been sped up drastically- and -and the level of ability these new hybrids-"

"It is not me you must show progress to, Szayel Aporro." Ulquiorra said with more than a hint of coldness in his tone.

Szayel bristled at the frigidity implied yet didn't back down. "Well, then, tell Aizen-sama that more-"

"I am to see for myself." Ulquiorra interrupted smoothly with barely a break in his monotone inflection. "Whether or not your experiments exceed or fail our Lord's expectations."

The Octava began spluttering indignantly.

She wished she could see their faces.

Instead. She projected them in her mind.

Gin smiling-smirking like he knew something no one else did.

Ulquiorra expressionless, a perfect soldier.

And Szayel furious because he simply had no choice.

She felt some sort of vicious vindication deep in her soul.

After a long moment, Szayel finally spoke cuttingly, "fine! If it comes from Aizen-sama, I have no objection to my work being overseen."

She could tell he did.

_Feel_ it in the subtle fluctuation of the reiatsu against her glass prison.

"Well then!" The sound of clapping penetrated the sphere. "I'd best be going and leaving the brilliant scientist and the Cuatro to work." Gin's slow, deliberate steps crossed the room, "give my best to Rukia-chan, 'Kyorra-kun!"

The door closed with a definite, faint slam.

Silence fell until Szayel's muttering broke it.

"..still can't believe this! _I _ am a scientist-!"

"Szayel Aporro." That was all it took.

The Octava grew silent as if physically slapped.

She could admire the _fear_ Ulquiorra inspired.

"Yes, right..what was I working on previously-?" Szayel wandered off, beginning his muttering again. It was his own special kind of insanity.

She, in the glass sphere suspended above the floor by tubes and living wires; felt eyes.

Cold.

Green like absinthe.

They turned up to her, burning. Piercing.

The intensity of it stole her breath, caused her heart to beat anew.

Wanting to beat in place of his empty, heartless being.

_'Ulquiorra.'_ She thought-whispered.

Two steps and he was closer.

He had heard.

She wanted to see him.

The Hogyoku responded.

Strength surged from the ropey strings of tissue.

Her eyelids fluttered, violet streaked yellow like an aberrant sunburst gazed into the tilted up face of the black-haired, green-eyed Arrancar.

_'Ulquiorra..'_ She thought-whispered again.

Softer.

Her small fingers reached out.

Reaching for him.

Slowly, he withdrew one hand from his pocket, extending almost hesitantly to rest his thin white fingertips against the glass.

"Rukia." He murmured quietly.

...

Her naked form floated in suspension.

Dark tips of hair fluttered softly like a breeze blew through them, her eyes were closed, the mouth respirator providing oxygen to her lungs.

Szayel had written in his report, he thought she was capable of surviving without it by will and the Hogyoku alone.

Ulquiorra had seen the report.

Kuchiki Rukia defied all reasoning.

Flesh ripped from dying Adjuchas, reacted to the pull of Hollow-Shinigami power and fed the rampancy of the orb and its host.

_She was powerful_-

Szayel's footsteps faded.

Ulquiorra at last turned to gaze fully at the slumbering Shinigami.

She was motionless. Her skin an almost marble-like fineness without light. _A creature of darkness_, she was steadily becoming.

_'Ulquiorra.'_ His name reverberated in the air, yet was spoken by no lips.

The stasis remained the same.

Against his better judgment, he drew closer, still gazing up at the woman.

The Hogyoku in its pedestal-like stand encased by beams of Kido light, flickered. The rope-like tentacles attached to the glass sphere where she rested, pulsated. Power flowing through to the host_. Almost_ fascinated, he watched as she stirred.

Violet streaked golden revealed, framed by long lashes.

_'Ulquiorra..'_ The whisper came again. Softer_. Almost_ caressing.

Her arm lifted from the clear fluid, searching fingertips pressing against the glass barrier.

His hand moved almost on its own accord, lifting.

The tips of his fingers rested against the cool glass.

They would be touching but for the spherical wall that separated them.

Some undefined, unknown part of him wished it wasn't there.

"Rukia."Her name left his lips, a hint of wistfulness that even he could not fathom its source, tinted it.

_She was a beautiful monster_.

-TBC

AN: *I'm sorry for the lack of updates. But everything in my life has-is gone, or will be soon. It's just...impossible to explain*

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Thanks for reading.

No flames.

Reviews appreciated.


	30. Mark of the Beast

Aizen had spies everywhere. That being an inescapable fact, Gin still managed to arrange Ulquiorra to meet him in the central control room once it had been de-bugged of course. From there, seated before the console top and screens, Gin could see the positions of every Espada and even Aizen himself brooding in one of his private chambers.

Ulquiorra seemed less than pleased to have been called away from Szayel's lab and made the point of it in somewhat vocal terms.

"This was reckless of you."

He kept his smile though being censured by a subordinate was more than insulting. "I just had to inquire on Rukia-chan's well-being. Aizen-sama rarely ever lets me out of his sight now."

Ulquiorra assented that with a brief nod. Gin ran his gaze over the Arrancar attempting to glean anything of his emotional state (he knew the Arrancar had emotions) no matter how rare they appeared. One thing that still perturbed Gin was that they seemed to be more visible when _she_ was involved.

"Rukia is…fine."

Gin caught the difference.

Not _woman_, not _Shinigami_.

But, _Rukia_.

Gin hummed to himself quietly under his breath, breaking off to smile at the Arrancar's silent disapproval. "Aizen has plans for her, you know. He thinks now that with her, he can perfect the Hollows and create a superior race."

"She would never willing give in to Aizen-sama."

"No, as much as I admire her stubbornness, it could become a problem." It was almost uncanny in the way Ulquiorra predicted Rukia's mind even before Gin had a chance to formulate the words. He felt a tiny prick of annoyance just a little bit, but kept it from showing. After all Ulquiorra was the only one he could ask, the only one whom didn't see little Rukia-chan as an experiment or a little lab mouse to examine.

For that he hid his jealousy well, spreading long-fingered hands out.

"I want to see her."

…

He didn't know quite _what_ Ulquiorra had done.

Save that Szayel and his fracciones were conspicuously absent from the main lab, being somewhere off in another part of the laboratory complex fretting over a chemical spill. Gin kept his senses primed for their return; Ulquiorra had been called away a little bit after that to divert the intrusion of the Ryoka (wouldn't Kurosaki ever realize she didn't belong to them anymore?) Gin sighed and shook his head. Their break-in couldn't have come at a worst time. Finally raising his gaze to the figure suspended in the glass orb made Gin even more anxious to release her before Aizen took drastic steps.

There was a slight hum in the air.

A trace of energy confined in the tiny space. Gin's slitted eyes wandered upward to the ropey extensions like vectors feeding off the main cell. Rukia appeared to be asleep, lost in a dreamland. Gin watched as some of her longer strands of hair flowed around her face, languidly.

"They say you're a monster, Rukia-chan."

A bubble floated to the top of the tank.

He had the strangest feeling she could hear him. "But, I know you're not. How can you be? You're just Rukia-chan who didn't know where she belonged in the world." Gin stepped a little closer, "things are gonna get trickier from now on…but I'll try this time. I'll try harder for you than I did with Ran-chan. I won't let him hurt you the way Ran-chan was hurt."

A soft thud resounded throughout the silent lab.

A look of pure amazement stole over Gin's face.

_She had heard him!_

A fleshy tentacle detached from the orb, thumping the glass as it slid down to his chest level then slowly extended outward like a human appendage. A glimmer of red shone from his eyes. The tip of the vector touched his cheek. It was the most intriguing paradoxes Gin had ever laid eyes on.

_A beast within the beauty_..Rukia's eyes remained closed in the liquid. Gin saw no movement from the dreamer herself yet the tentacle lightly touched his cheek. "Do you remember when I made you the circlet of daisies and how you shuddered so delightfully then?" He gently covered the flesh-like vector with his hand, feeling it pulse with _life, warmth...blood_.

"But, you're not afraid of me anymore, are you, Rukia-chan?"

Gin felt the lightest of brushes against his forehead. A caress of energy that slipped back to the orb and the ribbon of flesh. Gin watched it slide away, pressing against the glassine surface then pulsate.

A loud beep sounded in the air.

The sound of glass cracking followed.

Gin's gaze slid to the closest monitor.

Her heart rate had spiked up.

"What is it now, Rukia-chan? What do you sense?" Gin murmured, wondering if it had something to do with her friends entering Hueco Mundo.

-TBC

AN: next chapter Ichigo vs Ulquiorra and Rukia dreams of the Hollows.

Thanks for reading!

No flames!

Reviews loved!


	31. Light in your eyes

She heard Gin.

Could even hear the distant sounds of Szayel's amusing wails over his lost fluid compounds.

But, where was Ulquiorra? Voiceless, sightless, Rukia probed the air currents of the palace, finding only traces of his reiatsu scattered about.

Gin had sensed her concern.

Her heart started to pound.

Please, no.

There were familiar reiatsus beyond the walls of the palace.

Uryu, Chad. Renji, Ichigo and…Ulquiorra.

The Hogyoku pulsed, reacting to her emotions. _Let me out_- the extension of her being thudded against the glass orb sending a crack deep into the surface, again and again. I have to tell them to stop—I have to—

Ichigo's reiatsu raged a vibrant, violent hue. Ulquiorra's sedate green, vivid in its own way collided, pushing-pressing against the opposing one.

_Stop it, you idiots!_ She would've screamed yet only bubbles streamed from the respirator. From the other side of the glass, Gin kept asking _what was wrong?_

Couldn't he sense it?

Couldn't he feel them fighting beyond the walls in the desert?

…_no_. Rukia realized, startling herself. Gin couldn't sense that far. He was a Shinigami still, strong but not different. Not a monster. Her eyes flew open wide, the vectors of flesh snatched the Hogyoku from its palanquin and slammed in unison against the glass. Rukia felt herself falling, weightless in the sudden suck and gush of fluids as the orb caved in.

Then, arms as Gin swooped forward, catching her solidly before she hit the ground.

"Oi, Rukia-chan! That's dangerous, you know!"

She forced her lids open after what felt like years of darkness behind them. "I-Ichimaru…" she questioned, the blurry face of the fox-faced Shinigami above her.

"Eh? What is it?"

"Ulqui—Ulquiorra! He's fighting Ichigo! You have to sto—"

"What…is this?"

She twisted around weakly to where Szayel stood on the doorway. The pink-haired scientist remained on the threshold, beady amber eyes flickering to the destroyed orb and Ichimaru kneeling in the fluids supporting her limp weight.

"I swear such incompet-"

"Shut up!" Rukia snapped hoarsely. The Hogyoku within her reacted, sending a pulsating wave of energy at the Espada. Szayel was lifted off his feet and slammed backwards into the wall. Stunned, Gin gaped down at her; Szayel in turn, glasses askew, breathed, "amazing! Her powers are growing at such an exponential rate!"

She didn't care about that. _What were powers when it was reason that Ulquiorra and Ichigo needed to see?_ Again with dripping fists, Rukia clenched Gin's shirtfront, shaking him with all her weakened strength.

"Please make them stop! You have to make them stop fighting! They're going to kill each other!"

_And I…I…don't want that_. Cold shock washed over her in a sweeping wave. She realized then that she couldn't bear to see Ichigo hurt..nor Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra whom in such a short span of time had become something….something other than a hated Hollow. He was Ulquiorra, green-eyed with flickers of tiny emotion in his eyes and quiet words. There were many times when she hadn't been able to stop from wondering what he had been like as a human before the darkness of the void had consumed his heart. Was he kind? Was he lonely? She had always believed it, seen it reflected deep in his eyes whenever they met hers.

_Loneliness._

_Coldness._

_Acceptance_.

Ulquiorra had chosen to adapt and build a wall around himself that no one could pierce. Knowing of its existence made her pity him more and long to tear it down, see light in his eyes.

Aizen's voice chose to flitter bird-like through her thoughts then.

"_With my knowledge…you could restore the heart of a Hollow. Don't you wish, Ms. Kuchiki, for Ulquiorra Schiffer to possess a beating heart? One for you to __**possess**__?"_

She had refused to give it a thought back then. But now…now when the orb of distortion was inside her, a part of her, feeding its energy directly into her core rather than as a separate object; _the possibilities_….

"Rukia-chan?" Ichimaru's voice was questioning sounding as though it came from a distance away. He had shifted her, easing out of his top layer of clothing, draping the cloth around her suddenly freezing body. She felt strange then. Everything was hazy, losing focus. Her fists slackened, she fought to stay awake above the rising tide of fuzzy darkness.

_No…no…no! _

"She looks drowsy-"

"That's normal." Szayel said flippantly from many miles away. "The sedative injected into her amniotic fluids is likely still flowing through her system. It'll take a few days for its effects to wear off, the most probable answer however is that Ms. Kuchiki simply overexcited herself."

Rukia wanted to hear Ichimaru's opinion but found herself slipping, falling into the darkness. Soon even her eyelids fluttered, lowering, shutting to the warm darkness….and when she opened them next, she was in a moonlit-skied world.

A lonely seeming world.

One with many black shapes traversing white sand, ignoring the solitary pure white form on his knees. For many moments, she remained still, frozen, her heartbeat faintly pounding in her ears.

…_Ulquiorra?_

She wasn't absolutely sure how she knew it was him. Was it the attitude the figure posed in? One of abject despair, ignored, head bowed, dark bat-like wings slackly folded, edges trailing in the soft grit beneath her feet.

Then, he moved.

Tilting his masked face up. Two horns curved out from the crown of his head, slits in the pure white helmet revealed solid green eyes staring, looking through her, past her.

With a start born of not a little disappointment, Rukia realized, he couldn't see her. Nor could any of the sudden rising of black shapes encircling the Vasto Lordes form of Ulquiorra.

There was an almost heartbreaking curiosity in his gaze as he beheld the monsters' approach.

_Ulquiorra! Run!_ She wanted to scream.

But of course her plea was lost in the silence.

As were the Hollows screams of agony. Ulquiorra was little different than the present, graceful, an almost severe elegance to his claws ripping through the heads of the creatures. Blood spattered the sand, sprayed all around yet never once touched her.

It passed through her, splotching the light grains of sand a sickening crimson ochre.

Claws drenched, pure white body spattered, the triumphant Vasto Lordes gazed around the scene of carnage with no pleasure in his wandering eyes.

Only a faraway kind of sadness.

He was alone again and she understood.

He had not killed like the others for the sheer empty joy of killing nor for satisfying repulsive hunger, he had done so merely because he was threatened. Like any other dumb beast, he was ruled by the most basic of instincts.

She found herself pitying him as the scene changed.

She never moved yet the desert around her morphed into a body-less vista of sand and quartz trees and Ulquiorra wearily trudging on. Cleansed of blood, his purity seemed deadened, an empty effort of motion in putting one clawed foot over the other. Of breathing the same stale air and occasionally glancing up at the lonely moon.

The moon offered no comfort, Rukia saw. It was a taunting, cold sphere in the sky. It offered solace nor comfort to the creatures below, bathed in its ethereal light. Ulquiorra saw it the same way, of that she was sure.

His gaze at first was condoning.

Then, faintly angry.

Then at long last weary.

He had searched for meaning in the barren land and found nothing to account for with his eyes. Mouthless, voiceless…she could understand how his outer face was a façade hiding a deeply lonely soul.

_Ulquiorra_…her heart ached for lost heart.

Her hand stretched out.

_Translucent, immaterial, tiny_.

He was walking straight toward her, his path smoothing into a subtle angle.

_Would that I could ease the emptiness in your soul-!_ The other world faded from her thoughts, her consciousness of the dream mirroring reality as another image overlaid itself on the world around her. Ulquiorra was a Vasto Lordes then not at the same time. He was himself as an Arrancar, emerald eyes widening as a black blade protruded from his chest.

And then time was moving much too fast.

"Ulqui—ULQUIORRA!" She screamed, shattering the silence. Her fingertips landed against the shallow bone-thin chest just below his empty chain of fate.

"Don't die! Please don't die!"

The past shattered into thousands of fragments and she was standing there, inconceivably, undeniably present. Rukia could even feel Ichigo's overwhelming spiritual pressure, its gritty dirtiness from the Hollow mask he wore in battle and the scent of blood, coppery thick lacing the electrically charged air.

Ichigo was beside her.

Ulquiorra in front of her, impaled upon the end of the black sword.

There was surprise in his expression as if he truly hadn't thought it would end—_no..no! It couldn't be this way_—

Rukia fought off the plummeting sensation of despair, tears stinging her eyes, even then in last seconds, wishing to change the inevitable fall of the Arrancar.

Something happened then.

Closing emerald green eyes widened, with a faint surge of recognition.

"Ru-Ruki..kia?" Ulquiorra whispered.

"What did you say?" Ichigo snapped from the background.

_I should hate you_, she thought, her fingertips falling against his rapidly bloodying chest.

_But_—

Beneath the damp, sticky fabric, she felt the faintest pulse…_like the beat of a heart_.

_I can't_.

-TBC

AN: thanks for reading!

No flames!

Reviews loved :D


	32. Heartbeat

Her image was faint.

The pain greater threatened to send him to black oblivion. Ulquiorra had never thought it would come to that point. Kurosaki was trash coming to steal away the Shinigami- his friend.

That's right…she was the trash's friend.

_But…_

_What are you to me…Rukia?_

There seemed an eternity of reaching.

Of her light fingertips, translucent, falling against his chest.

He wondered if he would ever see her again once his vision blackened, once Kurosaki sliced through his throat?

It was impossible to know. He had little concept or knowledge of after-death. There seemed little reason to when the world around him was meaningless and he a meaningless creature simply being. But, then there was Rukia and Rukia was something.

Beyond the God-like power of the orb.

Beyond her façade of few smiles and silence.

She had done something to him. She had become something to him. No longer meaningless as a flower to be crushed like the humans, she was herself. Ulquiorra ignored the pain in his body, disregarding Kurosaki's confusion and focused solely on the eyes that stared at him helplessly from the side.

_You would shed a tear for me?_

Then as the crystalline droplet rolled down her cheek, something happened then. Warmth from the pressure of her fingertips built up in his chest, flooding it with unnatural heat. Then a forgotten sensation blossomed in the empty cavity, a pulse. Flesh tightening, sealing. He felt the blood rush to his head, his breaths coming a little faster then as Rukia began to fade…a different feeling.

One of wholeness.

He could feel something beating in his chest.

…

Gin wasn't sure what to make of anything anymore. The Arrancars whom had been sent out at his request granted by Aizen of course, fought a furious quick battle with Kurosaki's friends and succeeded in killing the Quincy and the dark-skinned human. Kurosaki was captured barely alive as well as Renji Abarai. Ulquiorra escorted the Arrancars back to Las Noches, fully healed.

_In fact…_

A frown replaced his smile. The Cuatro had been taken directly to Szayel's lab to be examined over the most curious manifestation occurring in his body.

Gin barely knew the details of the battle.

No one would tell him anything. Not that he cared…about Ulquiorra one way or another. In fact he'd have preferred it had Kurosaki-kun been useful for once and disposed of the Arrancar out on the Las Noches desert…never mind Rukia-chan's tears which Gin would've only been too happy to wipe away.

No matter the pleasantness of imagining Ulquiorra's demise; Gin refocused on the pale form wrapped in a rich burgundy ermine blanket on the large bed. Rukia remained sleeping. Sleeping like a princess from a fairytale. Except, he reflected with a faint smile. The princesses in fairytales didn't possess fleshy-rope like extensions that vanished into their backs, nor had such beautiful monstrous eyes of violet streaked with orangey yellow like the sun setting on a purple sky.

Gin stretched his hand forth and stroked the crown of Rukia-chan's head.

She was still so cute when she slept!

He was only the tiniest bit disappointed that during waking her sole concern had been for other males. Gin did have a tiny suspicion of her assistance in Ulquiorra's battle with Kurosaki-kun. Could the deviant little ball inside her have reacted to her wish to save both males? Nothing made sense, but then no one was ordinary in Las Noches either.

He wasn't ordinary and nor was she.

"What kind of love story would we have had if we were alive in the humans' world…Rukia-chan?"

Gin had always had the feeling that sleeping or waking she could sense his presence.

This was proven by a moment's murmur, then the subtle slide of paper thin eyelids folding back to reveal the same startling orbs from before.

"I-Ichimaru?" Rukia's voice cracked, was faint. But he was glad to hear it.

"Yeah? I've been waiting for you to wake up…been out quite a while, Rukia-chan. Five hours almost, I'd say." He was a little surprised she didn't recoil from his hand on her cheek. "Did ya dream anything while you were sleepin'?"

Those too-large eyes in her face narrowed, squinting as if trying to remember something. It was an adorable display one he savored and missed when it vanished to slight blankness.

"I-I think I did…but it all seems so improbable now. Ichigo and Ulquiorra…were out on the sands…and I was there too."

More of the old annoyance reasserted himself. Gin was reminded all too familiarly of the time with Kaien Shiba. Rukia-chan had been a bit too fond of the Lieutenant, too close to him like she was with Kurosaki and …Ulquiorra. Faint tints of red dotted Gin's vision, red like blood.

"Ichimaru?"

"It's nothing, Rukia-chan. Can you remember anything else of your fascinating dream?" He smiled like always so she wouldn't suspect the thoughts that passed through his mind. Images of red, violence like sweetener. They were harmless little fantasies he indulged in occasionally. Without subtle manipulation, Gin wasn't entirely positive he could kill Ulquiorra single-handedly. Kurosaki- oh no. Definitely not. It was definitely a pity neither had destroyed the other on the desert sands.

Rukia-chan hadn't said another word.

Gin thought she suspected something was amiss. She was perceptive of that, maybe she was becoming more receptive to his moods? That brought him a tiny bit of joy in the cold interior of his chest where the heart lay.

She was perceptive – supposedly to Kurosaki.

She knew when silence was best with Ulquiorra – as he'd seen much too often for his liking.

And now…was she receptive to his jealous thoughts? Gin hesitated on naming them as jealousy. He was never jealous- oh no! That was just too uncouth such a well-defined emotion as jealousy! So, he smiled- like always, and prattled about Ulquiorra.

"'Kyorra-kun is doing fine, I'm sure you're curious about that."

She brightened; it was a slight effort to keep smiling.

"He came back with Kurosaki Ichigo-kun and Abarai-kun your old friend. If you ask nicely, Captain Aizen might let you see one of them."

A slanting of her eyes, pain flitting like a shadow.

"Can I…could I really see them…now?" Rukia's voice was tremulous. Quiet. Gin tilted his head at the note in her voice, not quite understanding.

"What do you mean, Rukia-chan?"

Her tiny fists gripped the blanket.

"I mean…look at me! I'm a monster, aren't I?" Her tone was suddenly forceful, demanding. Gin's smile dipped, he felt the waver in the stable energies in the room, thicken. He figured it was a reaction to her emotions.

_Scary thought_. Gin withdrew his hand from her face, dropping it to her clenched fists. Clasping the closest one tightly. "Rukia-chan, don't ya remember what I said before?"

She pouted, her gaze going back to his face.

"You're you no matter what."

_Even if you've lost your humanity_.

"Didn't I tell ya once…that I loved you?"

Now she looked merely doubtful, something that hurt him slightly.

Gin however kept his feelings to himself and kept smiling (keep smiling he told himself to make the bad go away) "Well, that hurts me if ya don't. 'Cause I was serious about it. Now, Rukia-chan, I don't want you to be fretting about nothing, ya hear? If your old friends don't accept you for what you are then-"

The door opened. He stiffened. Aizen's reiatsu was as palpable as his clap, shattering the still air.

"Perfectly spoken, Gin. Would that Abarai-kun and Kurosaki Ichigo-kun embrace the friend they've come to save."

To Gin's alarm, Rukia struggled to sit up, her quick temper falling prey to the man's goading. "Where are they-? What have you done to them?" He tried to restrain her unsuccessfully, a wet sucking sound filling the air as monstrous tentacles burst out of her back, flying forward to hover inches away from Aizen's face as a tangible threat.

The Lord of Hueco Mundo kept smiling. "That's it, Ms. Kuchiki. Now, I wonder how Ichigo-kun and Renji-kun will react?"

"What?" She asked sharply, her brow furrowing. "What the hell do you mean?"

"Merely, you may see your friends, certainly, as Gin has said." Cool brown eyes hardened. "Only that you _appear_ as you are now, without the human-shell hiding the truth of what you are." Aizen ended delicately. Gin partially forgot himself, halfway rising between them.

"Just what are you plannin', Aizen-sama?"

"Why nothing, Gin. Only to show Ms. Kuchiki where she belongs."

Rukia ignored the tension between them, pulling the blanket with her to her chest, reaching out to tap Gin's hand. "No, it's alright. I-I want to see them. Please, take me to them."

-TBC

AN: thanks to everyone whom reviewed! C:

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